


MISFITS

by sapphskies



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Aspiring filmmaker! Seo Changbin, Coming of Age, Explicit Language, Fluff, Humor, Inappropriate Humor, Manager! Bang Chan, Mentioned NCT Dream Ensemble, Mentioned Son Chaeyoung, Mild Gore, Multi, Skater! Han Jisung, Street dancer! Hwang Hyunjin, loosely based off of the tv show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 20,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27046945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphskies/pseuds/sapphskies
Summary: ➳❥ when jisung accidentally kills a high school senior on one faithful night out at the skate park, he drags in a group of confused and mortified semi-kids along for the ride.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Seo Changbin, Kim Seungmin/Lee Felix
Comments: 17
Kudos: 36





	1. HJS

The icy drawl of cold air nipping at Jisung’s stiff skin should’ve been enough to convince the boy not to go out that night. Sure, he was confident in his abilities, but was he really going to risk freezing his ass off for one, measly attempt at conforming to the standards of the **Elite Skater Boy Squad** at his local skate park? _Of course._

Not having left his house yet, seeing as it was very late – the gang only met up around midnight, Jisung had already devised a fullproof plan that would keep him from having to confront his mother, who would give him a thousand layers to put on _if_ he were even allowed to leave the house in these late hours. Upon short debate of its worth, he'd already decided to leave behind the wool gloves his mother forced him to always have on, and instead decided he’d take on the cold chill of the night without them.

This 'fullproof' plan quickly displays its evident flaws whenever Jisung lifts his legs - albiet, with great struggle - over his window's frame, groaning at the imprint it undoubtedly leaves on the back of his sensitive thighs. Still, he remains resilient and determined, reaching a hand over his head to grip onto a large branch on the conveniently-placed tree outside of his bedroom window. Quickly swerving his sluggish legs to settle down over its largest - and hopefully, strongest - branch, Jisung meticulously reaches over for his skateboard and settles it as close as possible to his hovering, shaky figure. With his hoodie sleaves lifted over his sensitive palms, Jisung begins a scuffle-instigated ascend down the cold, coarse, barely-visible conifer. Just as his mission to successfully scale down its thick trunk, seems to be playing out quite well, Jisung encounters an inexorable problem; a bit of a slip, maybe a miscalculation in his steps, maybe he imagined an invisible branch there. It was hard to tell, seeing as it was the dead of night and Jisung couldn’t see anything to save his life – literally.

Watching as the last few, dreary years of his life flash before his eyes, Jisung's yelping, frantic self eventually scrambles about to hold onto anything. And while he’d succeeded in keeping himself up, the same couldn’t be said for his poor skateboard. Instead, he has to listen, in pure agony, as it falls and plops onto the grass, sounding out a soft thud.

Peering down as slowly as is possible, so as to not startle himself because of the height he was looking down from, Jisung quickly puffs out a sigh in great relief as he meets eyes with his precious, beautiful, and most importantly, _intact_ skateboard. Heaving in another deep breath, he moves slower, moving down with better precision this time. Of course, the result is likely redder, scruffier palms, and even more tatter to his already bedraggled clothing. The matter of which, didn't bother Jisung all that much, as it seemed like it just contributed to formulating the aesthetic he'd been attempting to exemplify.

Eventually, when he’s miraculously gotten far enough to jump off of the tree, he lands back onto the leveled ground. Although it isn't nearly as smooth as he would've hoped for – as in, he’d fallen on his ass –, he'd been too busy celebrating his intactness and functionality to care.

Grabbing his skateboard, Jisung readjusts his beanie, patting down at his long bangs, and rides off into the unsuspecting night.

**✧✧✧**

The park was livelier than expected. Jisung had never actually been out in it when it was this late, having made it a habit to head back home before it was too late, or spend his night at a friend’s house. Unfortunately for him, a recent incident had practically driven him out of the group. The incident being that he, may or may not have, accidentally revealed their hideout spot on campus, where they’d go to ditch class. His parents would remind him that they’d warned him about ‘being amongst the wrong crowd’ and ‘associating with the wrong people’ – which is, essentially, the same idea worded two different ways.

Jisung’s eyes trailed over to the spot where he could hear his friends – or ex friends – chatting and laughing, passing around cans of beer and slices of pizza. Staying in his blind spot, Jisung gripped onto his skateboard more tightly, mumbling and practicing the words to himself _‘Hey guys, uhm, can you please…ah shit…Hello, it’s me…no,’_

Unfortunately for the poor boy, one of the reckless college kids had decided to throw their empty beer can in his direction (the trash can, was indeed right next to him), causing him to yelp in surprise. He’d blown his cover.

He heard one of them chuckle ‘What the hell was that? Is there a little girl here?’

Jisung gulped, eyes fervently scanning the area for any escape route, but eventually decided that there was no way out of this, and hesitantly stepped out into the light, into their view. ‘H-hi, guys.’

Then came the dreadful part. They laughed, pointing at him, and imitating his earlier predicament. Na Jaemin, their supposed leader, raised his voice, glowering at Jisung from where he was standing ‘What the hell are you doing here, Han? This is our spot now, seeing as you fucked up with the last one.’

‘I…look, I’m sorry about that, I really am! I didn’t mean to, I tried getting away, but a teacher saw me–,’

‘Save it. You’re off the team. Go home, Han.’

‘But– there has to be something I could do. Look, I brought my skateboard, I could, I don’t know I could,’ He’d stuttered, feeling his nerves overtake him then and there. He simply, didn’t have the words.

Jaemin was ready to retaliate, taking the former’s silence as a chance to belittle him, but felt Jeno, who was sitting on the steps behind him, raise a hand to stop him ‘Hold on, Jae. Don’t you think we should give him a chance?’

‘What?’ Jaemin’s tone turned bitter, as he looked on at his friend in bewilderment. Jeno turned to whisper in his ear, miming a few random hand motions that made no sense at all out of context. Jaemin looked confused at first, but then his face had morphed into one of realization, a smile replacing his previous scowl. The two had then whispered amongst the rest, and soon, they all turned back to Jisung with eerie smiles on their faces.

‘Alright, Jisung. Let me lay it out for you. You impress us with a new trick, right there, on the central ramp. And we’ll simply let you back in if we see it fit our standards. Understood?’ Jaemin recounted, blue hair as prominent as ever in the hazy hue of the streetlights.

Jisung nodded profusely, thankful for the new opportunity having presented itself for him to take.

**✧✧✧**

It was simple. All he had to do was show off the new tricks he’d been spending weeks on end practicing, and eventually, he’ll be presented with the opportunity to get his friends back. He could do this. It was simple, right?

Wrong.

He’d planned it all. He was going to power through the cold of the night, perform his new tricks, utilize the big ramp, but…wait.

‘Hey, kid, move!’ Jisung called out, having made an abrupt halt in his movements after spotting a kid sitting at the edge from which he had to ride down.

Said kid had auburn hair that almost fell over his eyes completely, which looked sharp enough to cut cheese; even when there was barely any light overhead, Jisung felt intimidated by their harsh glare. Said boy looked to be in the middle of a game on his Nintendo Switch – which, Jisung had begged for profusely last Christmas –, and he’d simply remained unresponsive, even as Jisung kept prodding at him to move.

From the distance, where the gang of friends were watching him, Jisung heard Haechan – or Lee Donghyuck if you wanted to get your tongue chopped off – call out ‘Hey, dumbass! You can’t get some high schooler to leave, but you think you can join our team? Hilarious.’

Jisung was fuming now; he would not let some kid ruin his chances when they were presenting themselves to him so clearly. So, he resorted to walking up so he was right behind the boy ‘Hey! I’m talking to you, just move!’

No response.

‘Hey!! Are you listening to me?!’

No response.

‘For fucks sake, just push him away.’ _Huang Renjun._

‘I-I can’t just…’ Jisung’s head was spinning profusely now. From the nearby distance, he could hear the space around him just get busier and busier . A few ways away, he sees a few people walking around, one of them equipped with a camera, a car screeching to a stop.

‘Jisung! For fucks sake, just –,’

Jisung pulled at the kid’s arms, struggling for a brief moment as he felt him push back at him ‘Hey! I lost my game, you prick!’

Jisung yelled back ‘Should’ve listened then, you little shit!’

The static in Jisung’s head only seemed to grow, hearing a few people around them either shuffle closer to see what was happening, or some trying to rip the two wrestling strangers off of one another.

Finally, just as someone with brown, curly hair started to intervene, ripping Jisung’s arms off of the younger kid, Jisung’s life flashed before his eyes yet again, as he felt himself falling off of the ledge. Thankfully, the kid had quickly moved to push him back. Not so thankfully, he had fallen over instead.

The group around the ramp watched, as if in slow motion, as the high schooler crashes down onto the concrete ramp below him, body falling limp as blood gushes out of his head and screams of horror and terror sound around the nearly empty park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello !! welcome to my first official series :) i have a lot cooking up haha, but i wanted my first series to the public to be as light-hearted as possible. as you can tell, this story doesn't take itself too seriously at times hh. hope you've enjoyed my first chapter !! have a nice day/afternoon/evening :)


	2. SCB

‘Chae, your role is to give him the boba, that’s it.’ Changbin stressed, motioning wildly at said girl, who sipped at her own cup, grimacing at his tone.

‘My character is just so dry. Don’t you think she should have a deeper history or–,’

‘No. Just. Deliver. Boba.’

Chaeyoung pouted, slouching back in her chair, and mumbling something about how she’d get revenge for this one day, seeing as Changbin spent days begging her to take on the role, only for her one line to be ‘Can I take your order?’.

Changbin patted at the girl’s head, or cap, and quickly scanned the room, finding nothing but tired and weary faces from his small crew ‘Do you guys…want to pick up again tomorrow?’

Everyone was suddenly more awake, either mumbling something of an agreement or sounding out various whoops of joy. _Damn, kinda hurt._

This project was Changbin’s biggest one of the year. He had spent months planning for it alone as soon as his professor stressed the importance and weight it had on his final grade. Generally, it took a while to get everyone together as his temporary crew, a crusade around the university, practically. He’d been through the dance building, the visual arts building, the science building, and even the robotics building, which looked to constantly be in disarray and chaos.

Eventually, he got his solid team, but they all seemed to only be doing it for the free boba – seeing as they were filming at a boba shop, whose manager was egging on him to hurry up and finish, as if filmmaking were an easy feet to complete – and the extra credit they’d be getting for participating in it. Changbin couldn’t expect much since a majority of them had built strictly school-based relations with him.

He’d simply sighed, huffing in discontent as he bid everyone goodbye, watching as the lighting ‘crew’ – it was one guy – packed up their things, and Chaeyoung obnoxiously finish off her drink and dropping it into the trashcan, evading the taller male’s goodbye.

Changbin turned behind him as the last person left, making eye contact with the manager of the small boba shop, who had been waiting for him to leave for what felt like an eternity.

Pointing down to his wrist to indicate time, the tall man simply remarked monotonously ‘Just get your shit together and leave, I need to lock up.’

Changbin held back a scowl at the elder’s insufferableness, who seemed to have an edge on him from the second he’d stepped into the shop. That day would’ve been a _while_ back, seeing as his boba addiction caused him to pick out the university he wanted to study at based on the fact that the shop was right around the block from it.

He’d specifically chosen to shoot at the quaint shop, because the magnitude with which the boba provided his heart with serenity, was too far and wide to ignore. Plus, it was the dream set for any indie filmmaker, what with its whimsical aesthetic and its vibrant tones and colors. The contrast between the retro concept it seemed to be adhering to, and the more modern influences on its interior; everything about the scenery was perfect.

It didn’t matter now. Changbin had never felt so defeated and depleted, sluggish limbs lugging about his heavy bag, leaving out his hand-held camera, just in case. He walked to the door, hearing the ring of the bell overhead and the ‘finally!’ from the manager inside before the cold wind prodded at his exposed skin, sending chills through his body, even past his large layers.

Changbin made his trek back to the university building, briefly checking the time on his phone, **11:41 PM**. Unfortunately, the boy was sure that he wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night, as he’d spend the next few hours sifting through footage and replaying scenes incessantly until he was, either, satisfied with how they looked, or mentally noted down various flaws with them.

His blood was practically substituted for milk tea, so through a very skewed common sense, he’d decided some dosage of caffeine would somehow balance it out. Or at least, this is how Seo Changbin’s thought process went when he was walking down a cold sidewalk at 12AM, terribly drained from a long day’s events.

It was a familiar route back to the university, so his feet shuffled through the pavement quickly and without much thought, while his attention was instead directed at his camera, from which he’d intended to start filming the scenery that would soon come to be before him. Not too long after leaving the boba shop, he’d turn a corner that would take him to the familiar skate park. The one where he’d usually find a group of teenagers that thought they were hot shit and spat on the floor to assert dominance, or something like that. The thought vividly brought him back to a time he saw a mousy boy attempt to do so, but accidentally spitting out his gum in the process. From what he could recall, his friends referred to him as _Ji…something_ , he couldn’t care to remember.

Seeing the familiar, red light spark into life as his camera starts recording, Changbin starts his daily, filmed walk back home. The camera was faced down to show his moving feet and then eventually pans up so that the bushes next to him could be seen as well.

‘ _Changbin log #211. I’m devastated and heartbroken. My crew are all assholes and I’ve never felt sympathy for teachers until today. Except for you, Miss Park, you were a cold-blooded bitch. Anyways, the skate park isn’t too far away now. Hopefully, I don’t run into anything particularly demotivating because guess who has two thumbs and isn’t going to sleep tonight! That’s right, it is in fact, moi. Holy shit–,’_

Changbin had completely panned up at the familiar sight of the skate park. Within his sight, he could spot a group of kids near a stairwell, and two boys by the edge of the central skate ramp. Nearby, he heard someone else shuffling through, walking the opposite direction he was. It was only when he had gotten close enough to them did he realize something.

‘Are they…fighting?’ He’d quipped.

‘Hm, seems like it,’ The brunette next to him responded; he seemed familiar, but Changbin wasn’t sure if he could pinpoint why.

Changbin zoomed in on the pair, slowly moving closer with everyone else. Maybe he’s a shittier person than he thought, but he’d found the sight before him quite amusing, while the brunette that had caught his eye earlier looked to be attempting to break them apart.

Before anything could even be comprehended on his part, one of the boys next to him had accidentally pushed into him, causing his smaller self to topple over, his camera, thankfully, still intact and in his hands. With the speed of a camera capturing a succinct shot, Changbin looked up at the same time that a young body had fallen over the edge of the skate ramp, plopping down headfirst onto the cold ground beneath him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> second member !! i guess you guys would've picked up on the theme hh  
> spooky day is almost upon us :] !


	3. LMH

‘No, Felix, I’m saying I’ve been forced to pick you up, and you’re telling me you’re out in the dead of night, _alone_?’

Minho hears the voice on the other line exhale strongly, holding himself back from giving his younger cousin a short lecture about _‘respectfulness’._

‘Minho, I’m not alone. I told you, I’m still with Seungmin and…Chan’s here too, I guess, and he’s older so–,’

'Ok, slow down, who the hell is Chan? Also, is Seungmin the one with Kool-Aid hair, or the one with a limp?’ 

‘I don’t have a friend with a limp?’

‘So, it’s Kool-Aid, ok. Chan?’

‘Manager at the arcade you were supposed to pick me up from.' Felix drones sluggishly before quickly moving on 'Look, I’m sorry for wasting your time, or whatever, you can go back home now.’

‘Felix, you idiot,’ Minho grumbled into his sweater paws, eyes falling over the small _Felix the Cat_ figurine over his dashboard, which the younger boy had gifted him a few years back ‘I’m not just gonna let you walk around in the dark, no matter who you’re with.’

‘Fine. Drive to the skate park nearby, we’ll meet you there.’

‘Am I expected to drop off your friend, too?’

Minho could practically hear the former roll his eyes ‘He’s staying over at mine’s. Are we done now?’

‘Hm. We’ll talk about that tone when I see you in person. Bye, Lix.’ Minho hung up abruptly, leaving Felix with no room to bid him goodbye back.

Sighing out into the warm air of his car, Minho feels his head tilt to the side, eyes zoning in on a retreating figure in the darkness, taking only moments to conclude that it was just another skater kid, and he held himself back from rolling his eyes into the back of his head.

With one final glance at the small figurine, Minho finally drive away into the darkness.

**✧✧✧**

‘Felix, you’re _dead_.’

Minho saw the smaller boy’s stature falter as the older approaches ‘Minho, please,’

‘No! I’ll talk. So, I drive my merry way down to that beaten down skate park, right? Naturally, I expect things to go by normally. And _then_ , I call you, to let you know that I was close, only to get an answer from Kool-Aid boy over here,’ Minho pointed over to Seungmin, who glares back at him, before continuing ‘and I learn to know that you’re at a fucking police station?’

‘I can explain!’ Felix whines exasperatedly, feeling his eyes edge close to the point of tears.

‘Then, do it!’

The curly haired boy that Minho had to assume was Chan, based off of the name tag on his shirt that spells out ‘Chan’, holds a hand out to stop Felix from continuing, interjecting himself into the conversation ‘Listen, go easy on him, ok? He’s had a rough night. The whole incident was a misunderstanding, Felix didn’t do anything wrong and it was resolved quickly. Just take him home and call it a night, alright?’

‘And who the fuck are you? His dad?’

‘That’s completely irrelevant. I had to be there, Felix is still a minor, in case you’ve forgotten.’

Minho glared into the older male’s eyes, as if to challenge him, and for a few seconds, they simply stare each other down, stepping closer to determine who would let their guard down first. Seungmin rolls his eyes at the pair’s actions, having taken to comforting his little, sad friend ‘Are you two done? We need to go home.’

Chan was the first to break off the stare down – which Minho considered to be his victory – turning to the pair of boys before him ‘Stay safe, alright, kiddos?’

Seungmin responds with a nod, Felix doing the same into Seungmin’s shoulder, where he’d shoved his face, gripping onto the taller boy’s arm for comfort. Minho’s eyes do momentarily glimmer with guilt for having yelled at the boy so harshly. Still he finds it hard to communicate his next words, so he decides on a simple ‘Let’s go.’

Seungmin waves Chan goodbye, walking up with Felix to Minho’s parked car, which was incidentally, right by the skate park. After Seungmin’s call, Minho gave the younger little time to explain, quickly driving past the skate park – and witnessing what looked like an initiation into a gang or a cult – only to set his eyes on the trio in the back of a police car, who had offered to drop them off.

Seungmin and Felix had sat at the backseats of Minho’s car, and upon the elder’s strong gaze glaring back at Seungmin through the mirror, the younger had simply countered ‘He has to cling onto someone.’

Minho didn’t respond, moving to put on his seatbelt and subconsciously looking up at the rearview mirror, at Felix’s small figure in his friend’s arms, head dipped down into said boy’s chest, and arms wound tightly around him. His heart warmed at the sight, feeling a pang of guilt hitting at his chest. The feeling was, fortunately, short lived, as Seungmin quips from where he’s staring outside of the window ‘What’s happening over there?’

Minho turns to look outside at what Seungmin was pointing out, and immediately recognizes Chan’s big head of hair, and his bright purple work shirt, quickly approaching a pair of kids that seemed to be engaged in a fight.

Minho furrowed his eyebrows, moving too quickly remove his seatbelt ‘Wait here,’

Just as Minho had slammed the car door closed, a figure of a kid in pink converse that had been there one second vanishes from view. A group of boys were running and scrambling to get away as quick as possible, faces contorted in horror, and screams sounded around him, breaking any and all silence and tranquility that the night could’ve held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i made minlix cousins


	4. BC + KSM + LFL

If Chan were honest, he’d admit that he enjoyed his nights the most when he was watching his two seasoned regulars coming up with stupid names to beat their previous records on an arcade game. Unfortunately, he had to close up at a specific time, which had already passed by about an hour ago.

‘Boys,’

_Nothing._

‘Boys!’

_Pew. Pew. K.O._

‘Damnit! I swear, you cheated!’ Felix whimpered, bumping his shoulder into Seungmin’s, who was currently celebrating another victory.

Chan sighs to himself, feeling like his brain was beginning to jumble up into various codes that looked like a random set of numbers and letters to someone who didn’t know much about programming. He swore, if he saw his blood, it would probably blur into the familiar glare of the arcade games when it was so dark that the room was kept alive from artificial, bright, color-coded glow. Chan changed the color settings of the room often, usually at the request of Felix, who had some bright ideas, from what he could see – ‘dude, what about…rainbow’, ‘no, Felix’.

‘Guys, please,’ Chan’s tone was exasperatedly tired, and the pair shared a glance, seemingly coming to an agreement.

‘Alright, we’ll let you close up. Thanks again, Chan.’ Seungmin yawns, stretching out his sore limbs.

Chan mumbles various incoherencies, thinking that he was too nice to people sometimes.

‘Thank you, Channie!’ Felix chirped, expressing his thanks a bit more enthusiastically by wrapping his arms around Chan from the back, which the older male had quickly learned, was something the younger liked to do often.

As the trio make their way out, and Chan moves to lock the arcade doors behind him, he hears a short exclamation from Felix, who’d just looked down at his glaring phone screen.

‘Shit!’ Felix’s head seemed to gaze back into reality, reading the name off of his screen ‘I need to take this call, it’s Minho.’

Seungmin wasn’t much help ‘Oof, good luck,’

Felix held back a yell, sprinting over so he was a significant distance away from the two who were merely standing outside of the arcade doors.

‘Seungmin?’ Chan quipped, playing with the keys in his hands.

‘Hm?’

‘Do you every think, that maybe, your passions can change, seemingly overnight?’

‘What…do you mean?’ Seungmin questioned further.

‘I mean…you dedicate so many years to your passion and your dreams. But, then it just, changes. And suddenly, you feel like you’ve just wasted your life away, and –,’

‘Chan. You’re talking as if you’re in your 60s, calm down. You’re only 22, for fuck’s sake. Sometimes, things don’t work out the way that we expect it to. It doesn’t matter, you can’t expect yourself to have it all figured out already, and you know, it’s never too late to start something new.’

‘I’m programming my own game.’

‘Shit, really?’

‘Mhm. I’m devoting all my time to it! It’s a little RPG, and I think I’ve missed, like, 4 assignment deadlines the past few weeks because of it.’

‘Wow. Good for you, man. If I were you, I’d change majors, though,’ Seungmin remarked, playing with the friendship bracelet Felix had gifted him a few months back.

‘If you couldn’t tell already, I’m having a quarter life crisis over that,’

‘Not a mid-life crisis? With the rate you’re going, and the amount of sleep you’re getting, I doubt you’ll make it past 40,’

If looks could kill, Seungmin and Chan would both be on the floor.

‘Did I lie? My neighborhood stray cats get more sleep than you do.’

Felix’s presence was made known again, as he came back into view, chuckling at Seungmin’s comment ‘Let’s go! My cousin awaits.’

Felix’s soul might as well have been reaped out of his chest and sent away to a better place, like the arcade or something, because with the way he was feeling now, he doesn’t think he’d feel any different. Plus, he didn’t want his soul to be around such a negative aura.

The bars of the small jail cell he’d been shoved into were cold, but he stuck his face onto it, looking out at a desperate Seungmin and Chan had been amidst consulting the officer that had brought Felix in.

The past 15 minutes dragged on exhaustingly, passing by in a patchy, incohesive blur; both excruciatingly slow and infuriatingly fast. Before he could even breathe he’d been cuffed and arrested for theft, just because he’d been unlucky enough to be wearing a generic black ensemble and black mask, which happened to be some grocery store burglar’s choice of wear as well, surprisingly.

Felix whimpered into his hands, feeling his heart drop. All the time he’d joked about committing crimes and getting arrested were a byproduct of his adoption of modern day humor.

Before he could even acknowledge it, an onslaught of tears manage to trickle over his face at the mere sight of Seungmin and Chan moving out of his sight. He knew they weren’t really going to leave, but the mere feeling of being alone in a small, cold, space with nobody familiar around his line of sight was scarier than ever, especially for his fragile heart.

_Felix, hey, I’m just calling to let you know I’m almost there. Are you–,’_

_Hey, Minho.’_

_Goddamnit. Is this Kool-Aid or Limpy?’_

_‘What? It’s Seungmin. Whatever, look, you might have to make a detour.’_

_What? Why? Where’s Felix?’_

_Uh, we’re at the police station.’_

_What?!’_

**✧✧✧**

‘You called Minho?’ Felix’s small figure questions from where he’s sat in front of the bars of his empty cell – thankfully, the other cells had been full –, having resorted to hugging his knees to his chest on the cold, dirty floor of the precinct cell.

‘He called me, technically, I think he’s on his way.’

‘Seungmin! He’s going to freak!’

‘I know, I know, but I tried my best to explain. He’s pretty short tempered,’

‘Minnie…what if they can’t prove that I’m innocent? I’ll forever be on the record for stealing. I’d never steal! I would hate to steal from an innocent vendor! You know that, right, Minnie?’

Seungmin’s eyes slant down, feeling helpless and devasted for merely witnessing the state his friend was in. Crouching down so that they were at eye level, Seungmin peers at the boy through the steel bars, moving his face as close as possible so as to garner his attention ‘Lix?’

Felix responds with a small grunt from where his head is buried in his arms, eliciting Seungmin to continue ‘You remember that night we went out to see the stars?’

‘Hm.’ Felix manages to mumble after a few seconds of silence.

‘You told me that whenever you get lonely or sad, you'd imagine yourself under a sky full of stars. And remember how annoying I’d been, pointing out different possible combinations and constellations?’

Felix had looked up now, moving closer to the bars, a silver of a smile on his lips, waiting for his friend to continue.

‘Well, I hate to break it to you, but annoying astronomy-nut Seungmin is back. You’re freckles, Felix, form constellations too, you know.’ Seungmin slowly slides his fingers between the bars, seemingly forgetting where he was, or maybe he just didn’t care, to connect the dots on his friend’s face with a gentle graze.

‘Over here, I can find Libra,’ then, he moved his finger further to the left, grazing the apples of his cheeks ‘Lyra, and Aries. Oh!’ Seungmin’s fingers then trails over to his friend’s small nose ‘And, a personal favorite of mine, Cepheus. On this cheek–,’

The two had been abruptly cut off, causing Seungmin to almost slam his hand into the bars of the cell, by Chan’s booming voice, trekking over with an officer behind him ‘Felix, you can leave! They found the real culprit!’

Felix’s demeanor did change, of course, as he’d sighed out in massive relief over the ordeal finally coming to an end, and his record staying clean, but the small boy was still visibly shaken up. Seungmin joined his side immediately as Chan chatted it up with an officer, who had been formally apologizing – as he should – for their mistake and offering to drive them home. Hopefully, Minho wasn’t too close, Seungmin thought.

Didn’t matter to him, for now, his greatest concern lied in his friend’s wellbeing. In the car ride back, Felix had looked up at Seungmin after a while of having just buried his face into his chest and quietly whispered a small ‘Thank you. I love you, Minnie.’

Seungmin heaved out a shaky sigh before responding ‘I love you, too.’

_But not the same way you do._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehe yes !! i've combined three in one; it was too good an opportunity to miss ya know.  
> i have a lot pre-written, so i think i'll speed up updates so the special chapter can get uploaded on halloween !!!


	5. HHJ

‘Dude, no.’

‘Hyunjin, please! You know I won’t be able to,’ Yedam stresses from the other side of the line, struggling with holding his phone up to his ear whilst keeping two children from jumping over the dog fence.

‘If I do this, you’ll owe me, right?’ Hyunjin muses, catching the ball he was currently bouncing off of the low ceiling of his bedroom.

‘Yeah, sure.’ Yedam replies exasperatedly, still warding off the two children.

Hyunjin snickers as he chucks the baseball back into his basket of miscellaneous items, stretching one arm over his head before finalizing ‘Fine, I’ll do it.’

**✧✧✧**

Shoving his hands into his jacket’s pockets, Hyunjin grimaces as his teeth chatter against each other. Curse his overly light clothing and inability to layer. It wasn’t like he could afford to buy anything heavier than his current, grey sweatshirt.

Yedam, him, and the rest had used the skate park to unwind earlier that night, and for once, Hyunjin was able to relax and give his mind a break from all of the chaos that had infiltrated it brashly. Best of all, he got to come home at a reasonable time and have dinner with his mother; the simple act of which he hadn’t been able to receive the satisfaction from in a long time. This being, his mother’s cooking, which was 100x better than the convenience store food he had to resort to eating while he was out, either for work, or for work, or…for work.

Unfortunately for him and his never-ending system of bad luck, he’d received a very rushed and panicked call from Bang Yedam, who had insisted that he needed Hyunjin to get him his little cousin’s _Peppa Pig_ blanket. For some reason, he had it in his dance bag, probably accidentally placed there instead of a towel, somehow. After an ambush of teasing remarks from the rest of the dance crew, he’d accidentally left it on the cold, dirty floor of the skate park. And since Yedam was currently babysitting his two twin cousins, he couldn’t afford to wait till the next day for the stupid blanket, as they had already been driving him crazy the whole week that they’d been staying at his house.

Of course, Hyunjin was starting to regret agreeing to do so for him. No matter how many times he’d find himself in the cold, dark streets of the night, he doesn’t think that he’ll ever familiarize himself with the drab setting and washed out atmosphere. It was almost like all color had been drained from the world when it fell into nighttime; the flowers and shrubs on the sidewalks looked dull, even with the light of the streetlamps overhead. Then again, the neighborhood Hyunjin lived in wasn’t the most luxurious, and the flowers weren’t as lavish during the daytime either.

The distant sound of police sirens didn’t really help to settle the eerie mood of the night, and Hyunjin’s paranoia seemed to translate into his actions, when he violently flinches at the sound of a squirrel squeaking and jumping out of a tree bordering the entrance of the skate park he was heading to. He recollects himself quickly, and retreats into the skate park, noticing the usual college and high school kids dicking around in the dead of night. Quickly, his eyes searched for the spot that he and his dance crew had been in earlier that night, until they finally landed on the worn-out blanket – clearly, it had been through a lot prior to that day – and he strode over to it as quickly as possible.

Just as he imagined, right after his fingers gripped onto the soft fabric, a voice sounded from afar, startling him again ‘Hwang! It’s you!’

_Shit. He’d know that voice anywhere._

‘What do you want, Jaemin?’

‘Just greeting an old friend.’ The intimidating boy was adorned in his usual dark streetwear, and his hair had been a fresh blue this time around.

‘Friends? I seem to be recalling things differently,’

Jaemin and Hyunjin had a very deeply rooted history, dating back to as early as kindergarten. For some time, Jaemin had actually been very good friends with Hyunjin, ever since he approached the latter for a game of tic tac toe in the sandpit. It was around middle school when Jaemin had effectively changed, following his parents’ divorce. He’d distanced himself from anyone and everyone around him, even the old lady that lived next door and liked to bake cookies for her neighbors.

Eventually, things changed for the worst when, the next time Hyunjin would get to talk to Jaemin, he had converted into delinquency, after deciding that he was tired of being pushed around. He ‘took in’ a few other kids, two of which had been at a different school, and they quickly became infamous for starting up fights and hanging out at the skate park. What are the odds, that Hyunjin would stumble into him on a day like this? Although, of course, he went to the same community college as Jaemin and his crooks for friends, he barely saw them around seeing as they were barely in class.

 _Dim, dreary, and cold_. It shouldn’t have been too surprising that this is the kind of environment Hyunjin would be facing Jaemin in.

‘Jaemin, although I’d love to, I think we should focus our attention on one idiot at a time.’ Jeno chuckled, taking a sip from his second can of beer, gazing away at the sight of a gullible Han Jisung, walking around, seemingly calculating his next epic skate routine.

Hyunjin’s eyes glowered, searing into the boy in front of him ‘What are you doing with that kid?’

‘Calm down, that _kid_ is the same age as all of us. He’s a big boy. it’s not our fault he also happens to be incredibly naive.’ Renjun speaks up this time, grinning amusedly at the sight of Jisung approaching the kid sat at the edge of the ramp he wanted to utilize.

‘Hey, dumbass! You can’t get some high schooler to leave, but you think you can join our team? Hilarious.’ Lee Donghyuck yells out, causing the poor boy from the distance to short circuit and move frantically.

Hyunjin’s eyebrows furrowed at the idiocy he was enduring, and he moved to poke at a pleased Jaemin’s chest ‘What the hell is your problem? Are you so trapped in your ways that you don’t have a personality to live off of other than the _Standard Asshole Jock_ you haven’t dropped since high school?’

Jaemin laughed ‘I think your situation is more pathetic, honestly. The hypocrisy coming out of your mouth right now is very amusing, seeing as you’ve spent almost all your life trying to get somewhere you never will. You don’t have the money to live out you dreams, Hwang. You’ve put yourself up to standards that are much higher than what you can possibly achieve. Wake up, you’re in community college! _No one is exactly trying to get anywhere_.’

For a while, Hyunjin had simply blocked out everything around him other than the words Jaemin was spitting out at him with fiery distaste. As much as he wanted to dismiss anything that came out of the boy’s mouth, he couldn’t deny the very obvious reality that they all shared in common. When you’re poor, you really can’t expect to advance that far into life. No matter how many jobs Hyunjin tried to pick up. No matter how hard he decided to work.

Thankfully, he’d been driven out of his thoughts after getting his attention redirected to an ongoing fight by the pair he’d been looking out at just minutes ago. He’d cursed to himself, pushing past Jaemin and moving to the pair, noticing a few others follow suit as well, hopefully with his intentions as well, and not with the intention of encouraging the discourse.

Time seemed to flash by so quickly, and before he knew it, he was being knocked back into a shorter figure behind him, causing them both to stumble to the ground; thankfully, they hadn’t crashed into each other, because Hyunjin was sure he would’ve crushed the small boy if he did.

Before he could register anything, he hears a distinct _smack_ , and then blood-curdling screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh it's almost halloween !!!  
> i think i'm gonna dress up as kim possible hh


	6. YJG

‘HOLY SHIT!’

‘OH MY GOD?!’

‘YOU JUST– W-WE JUST WITNESSED A MURDER!’

‘IT WAS A FUCKING ACCIDENT!’

Jisung’s face pales, and his hands felt like they might rip his hair out, tears threatening to paint his cold face with regret ‘Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.’

‘Oh, no.’ Seungmin, who had still been protectively holding Felix close to him, held a hand up to his mouth at the sight before him. Minho, who was next to him, was positively starting to regret coming up to the scene at all.

Chan’s eyes were the most frantic Seungmin and Felix had ever seen, even after the few times they'd witnessed the sight of an Angry Chan – quite literally, that very same day, when he was scolding the officers that arrested Felix –. He was pacing the ground of the deep ramp he’d eventually scaled down, pondering over what he could've done differently ‘No. No. No. This can’t be happening. W-we just killed a kid!’

‘We?!’ Changbin grimaces from where he was still gripping onto his, now turned off, camera ‘I was simply a bystander.’

‘Uh, so was I.’ Hyunjin stammers out.

‘So was I?’ Minho mutteres, wondering if it was right to speak up after the bout of silence that settles, as everyone takes in the situation they’d just caught themselves in.

Chan didn't seem to think it was.

‘Who cares?! A kid just died! And yeah, technically, I blame myself more than anything for intervening.’ Chan mutters the last part, feeling like ripping every hair on his head out of its follicle.

‘What?! I blame that idiot over there!’ Hyunjin shouts, pointing over at Jisung, who still had his hands up to his head in confusion and lingering perplexity ‘I expect nothing less from someone who associates themselves with _Na Jaemin_!’

Jisung gasped ‘Y-you think I feel great about this? Look, I fully blame myself, but…I didn’t mean to, I was just trying to get him to _fucking_ move, and now he’s–,’

‘He’s dead! Say it with your full fucking chest!’

‘Hey! you don’t know anything about me or what I’ve been through. You don’t know Jaemin like I do–,’

‘You joking? I know Jaemin better than most people think they do,’

‘I’m sorry, but who the fuck is Jaemin?’ Minho quips, pointing down at the dead teenager in the pit of the ramp ‘Him?’

‘No, I don’t know who that is. Jaemin and his goons are the actual reason for all of this, and he ran away like a pussy.’

‘Oh? You were blaming me, like, two seconds ago.’ Jisung mocked, crossing his arms over his chest.

‘Shit! Felix!’ Seungmin breaks the meaningless bickering, feeling the body in his arms fall limp.

‘Woah, woah, what happened??’ Minho frantically moves over to the pair, along with some of the others.

‘He fainted,’ Seungmin grimaced, attempting to maintain his grip onto the small boy, with Minho’s help ‘damn it, he’s been through enough for today, let alone witnessing a death and then listening to two idiots bicker over it as if it’ll bring him back from the dead!’

Minho’s vision swelters as he gets a hold of Felix completely, practically pushing a frustrated Seungmin away, and muttering ‘I’m taking him to the car and driving him home,’

'Woah, wait, wait, no,’ Jisung fervently moves to stop the older from retreating away ‘none of you are leaving. You’re all a part of this now.’

‘What the fuck do you mean?! This is on you! we don’t even know what was happening before we got here.’

‘Doesn’t matter! You’re still here, you’re in the crime scene, and when you get called in for questioning, do you really think they’ll believe that his death was an accident?’

‘Yes…?’ Changbin quips, suddenly fearful of what Jisung was insinuating.

‘We’ll be dead meat, face it. The police force in this town are stupid as hell.’

‘What the hell are you suggesting then?’ Minho glowers, eager to just leave and make sure Felix is alright.

‘…we need to cover his death up,’

A chorus of muddled swearing and exclamations sound around him, but Jisung doesn’t falter ‘Look, it’s our best bet. All we need to do is, like, bury him somewhere and then burn the body. That’s all it’ll take. All the missing persons cases here are never resolved.’

‘You sure are sounding like a serial murderer right now, so I don’t know the extent to which you expect me to follow through with your bullshit.’ Seungmin comments, glaring into Jisung’s skull, along with everyone else.

‘Jokes on you, I have no idea what your big words mean, so they have no effect on me.’

‘Wait!’ Chan points over to Changbin, who cowers under everyone’s gazes suddenly falling on him ‘You! You filmed everything, didn’t you! We could use that footage as evidence!’

‘Uh,’ Changbin looks down at his camera, and drew his memory back to the second he heard the young boy fall to the ground of the ramp ‘I…I’m not sure if I filmed that part, actually. I kind of, fell…when it happened.’

Chan groans, growing anxious, before meeting Jisung’s knowing gaze ‘So?’

‘This is crazy! How would we even get the body somewhere without being noticed?’

‘I recall a certain someone having a car?’ Jisung turns to face Minho, eyes expectant and wide, while Minho’s were wide, but fearful.

‘No. Hell no. Not in my car.’

‘Unless you want us to make things worse for ourselves and break into someone else’s car, we need to use yours. Do you happen to have, like, a carpet or something, by the way?’

‘Why the fuck would I just have a carpet on hand?’

Jisung shrugs in response ‘I’m basing my logic on _How to Get Away with Murder_ , so,’

‘Of course, you are.’ Hyunjin rolled his eyes.

‘I…I have a blanket in my trunk.’ Minho mutters unwillingly, tone sulky and worn out.

‘Great!’

Hyunjin glares his eyes into Jisung’s back, still. _First order of business:_ _Do not trust idiotic acquaintance of Jaemin’s._

**✧✧✧**

After exchanging names in possibly the weirdest situation to be introducing yourself, the 7 almost-strangers establish a plan. Minho, Seungmin, Felix, and Changbin took the car, along with…Jeongin’s dead body. Chan, Hyunjin, and Jisung walk to their agreed upon location.

The nearest McDonald’s.

It was an idea suggested by none other than Han Jisung himself, who defended it by saying that it was probably the eeriest location in the small town they lived in, seeing as if you were to walk to the back, you’d find the most sullen, sad stretch of dull wood and torn mesh bordering that didn’t serve any purpose as there was a brick wall directly behind it.

Actually, Jisung was pretty sure that this used to be the location for an illegal underground ring. Which he’d told the others, only to earn several questioning looks and accusations that he was involved in something sketchy _‘Guys, please, you really think I can fight? I’m all talk in case you haven’t noticed.’_

That was beside the point. Minho had been pulling up directly into the back of the restaurant, after having been assured by Jisung earlier that they usually only had two workers on at the time, and that they were most likely getting high under the kitchen counter. Again, his abundance of knowledge was pretty suspicious.

‘I can’t believe we’re doing this,’ Seungmin frowns from where he was sat in the back of the car, gazing out of the window at the distant figures of three people that looked like they’d been taken straight out of three different comic books and forced together. Hyunjin’s gym wear, Jisung’s street wear, and Chan’s purple arcade uniform, were certainly a weird trio of aesthetics to be gazing at ‘and we’re all meant to trust that idiot? We’re doomed.’

‘What do you want me to say, there’s a dead kid in my trunk, I have to burn my favorite, fluffy blanket, and this idiot won’t get his feet off of my leather seat.’ Minho had directed the last comment to Changbin, smacking at his propped-up knee.

Changbin scoffs ‘I sit like this when I’m stressed, ok! You seem pretty pressed about one of my feet being up, as if there isn’t a dead body in your trunk.’ 

Minho would’ve acted on his frustrations, but he decided he didn’t want to deal with two dead bodies that day, so he just angrily rips off his seatbelt and pulls his sweater sleeves over his hands as they become exposed to the chilly air again. Seungmin gulps from where he was still sat in the car with Felix, suddenly becoming very aware of the fact that there was a dead body right behind him.

Bracing himself, Seungmin takes a few deep breaths and moves so he could open the door and readjust Felix’s position so that he was laying down as comfortably as possible. Unfortunately, the younger boy had started stirring awake the same second. Seungmin had been hoping he would have enough time to get him back home and then pretend like none of what Felix had witnessed actually happened, whenever he was awake.

Felix’s head shifts a bit from where it's laying on Seungmin’s lap, and eventually, he blinks his eyes open groggily, groaning at the rush of nausea that eats at his senses when he begins to sit up ‘Seungmin?’

‘Hey, Lix.’ Seungmin replies, trying his best not to let his internalized panic show, debating over whether it was too late for him to lie. Then, he realizes, there was no way he could possibly do that, especially when he saw Minho’s figure in the distance motioning for the two to leave the car, as if Felix hadn’t just been passed out. Seungmin simply waves at him to wait, to which he rolls his eyes and turns back to the group.

‘Woah. I just…had the weirdest dream,’ Felix starts, stretching out his weak limbs as Seungmin helped him sit back up, to which Felix just eventually lays his head back on Seungmin’s shoulder in tire ‘we…saw someone die, I think. It was really hazy, but there were some random people there too, and Chan, and you, and Minho, and–,’

'Felix.’

‘Hm?’

‘That really happened…,’

Felix tried his best to look up at Seungmin through his shielded, squinty eyes ‘Ha-ha, yeah, sure. Imagine though–,’

‘Felix, I’m serious.’ Seungmin then points out of the window, where the others seemed to be waiting for the other two, or maybe just discussing a very lengthy plan.

_What?’_

**✧✧✧**

‘I wish I were still unconscious,’ Felix heaves, the smell of Jeongin’s – they’d gotten his name from where his Nintendo switch was labeled, accompanied with a small fox doodle – rotting corpse and still-warm blood was a little too much for him to handle after having just woken up.

‘I wish I didn’t leave the house today.’ Hyunjin sighs, piling more dirt on top of the dead body, wondering what he would’ve been doing if Yedam had just, not forgotten his stupid blanket.

‘I’m kinda hungry.’

‘What the fuck, Jisung?’ Changbin glowers, pausing from where he was shoveling dirt too.

‘Yeah, seriously, is this not at least _a bit_ off putting to your appetite?’ Chan continues, aggressively shoving more dirt into the hole, desperate to get the night over with.

‘Nah, not really.’

‘You have some fucking issues, dude.’ Hyunjin shakes his head, wiping a bead of cold sweat – the worst kind – off his forehead, furrowing his eyebrows when he caught Changbin frozen up, staring at him ‘What?’

‘Nothing.’ Changbin carries on, averting his gaze from Hyunjin completely, causing the latter to shrug and move on.

‘I’m just saying, there’s a McDonald’s right there.’

‘Jisung, no.’

‘Actually, uh…,’ Felix starts, fiddling with his fingers nervously.

‘Felix?! You’re on board? Who else?’ Chan exclaims, looking around him at the rest, who either shamefully stared down at their feet or to the distance.

‘I hate to say it, but…I wouldn’t mind grabbing a bite.’ Changbin scratches at the back of his head.

‘Look, this has already been a depressing night for everyone, why don’t we just finish it off in the most depressing way possible and get cheap food from a crappy establishment?’

‘Hm, the idiot has a point.’ Hyunjin speaks up, reluctantly.

‘You’re all stupid.’ Chan mutters, rubbing at his eyes with the hand that wasn’t gripping onto a shovel, still.

‘Yeah, well, I’m going to get everyone’s orders, whether you decide to tag along is up to you, buddy.’ Jisung moves, taking his phone out of his pocket to start noting them down.

Just as everyone had started crowding around the short boy, Chan shrieks momentarily, almost jumping out of his skin, to the alarm of everyone.

‘What the hell happened?’ Minho asks, from where he was about to snatch Jisung’s phone to note his order down.

‘Uh…guys, I swear, I felt something pull at my shovel just now.’

Jisung chuckles amusedly ‘I think you’re just imagining things from all the dead body fumes and, like, blood, or whatever,’

‘I’m telling you, something definitely lurched at the shovel.’

‘Hm, maybe it was a rat, I get those at the dorm sometimes.’ Changbin unfortunately contributes.

‘Ew.’ Chan mutters, seconds before another lurch pulls the shovel out of his hands, seeing as his panic was much more renowned now. Immediately, he lets go, shrieking into the open air with everyone else as the unmistakable site of a grimy, dirt-covered hand gripped onto the shovel from out of Jeongin’s grave.

‘WHAT? THE? FUCK?’

‘SHIT! HE BECAME A ZOMBIE AND HE’S COMING BACK TO KILL US!’

‘OH NO! MY EMERGENCY APOCALYPSE FOOD IS BACK HOME!’

‘FELIX, IT’S LITERALLY JUST A SNACK DRAWER, IT WOULD LAST YOU A WEEK!’

In unison, the group shriek violently, gripping onto one another, as Jeongin flails his arms around wildly in attempt at piling the soil and wood off of himself. Eventually, he’d peaked his head out, shook his head to rid his hair of the dirt that had seeped into his brown strands, and gripped onto his head painfully. The group watches in horror as he looks up, points to Jisung, and openly calls out ‘ _Fuck you_.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooo it finally happened ~  
> also i'm aware most of this chapter is stupid dialogue; i warned you that this story was mostly a result of my shitposting


	7. Aftermath

You’d think that the two McDonald’s workers behind the cashier would question the noise they undoubtedly heard after 7 boys happened to accidentally raise someone from the dead and screamed into oblivion, begging for mercy. Minho who didn’t even believe in religion had gotten down on his knees and prayed to the starless, bleak, night sky. Jeongin would’ve found the sight amusing if he hadn’t been completely furious at Jisung and had murky dirt in his hair, on his eyelashes, beneath his fingernails, and in his clothes.

‘So,’ Changbin started, breaking the confusing, mind numbing silence that had instilled in the air since the group had decided to get food from McDonald’s – since Jeongin mentioned wanting a meal and everyone was too afraid to deny him of that.

‘could you…repeat that again?’ Changbin pressed, glancing at Jeongin as he furiously ate his chicken nugget, while most of the others barely touched their food and instead opted for staring wide-eyed at Jeongin’s presence.

Jeongin sighed frustratedly, pausing his small munching to declare, once again ‘I. Am. Immortal. What’s so hard to understand?’

‘Uh,’ Seungmin began, trying his luck ‘maybe, I don’t know, the mere existence of immortality?’

‘Look, man, I don’t know what to tell you. I could die again to prove it to you, but honestly, it’s exhausting.’

Jisung gulped, having been met with a glare every time he tried to word an apology to Jeongin, somehow still convinced that maybe the boy had come back to haunt them. Particularly him, for being the root cause of his death.

‘Um. So, Jeongin, is it?’

‘What.’ Jeongin seeped his brown eyes into Jisung’s cowered gaze and posture, before aggressively taking another bite of his nugget ‘Unless you’re gonna offer to hand me your fries, I don’t want to hear it. And maybe your toy too.’

‘Uh,’ Jisung rubbed at his neck, definitely feeling himself sweat this time ‘I just wanted to apologize. I’m really sorry. That sounds like a stretch given the fact that I…sort of…killed you,’

Jeongin held up a hand to signal him to stop ‘Jeez, that’s enough. Obviously, I don’t care that I died, dude. I’m literally immortal. It’s the fact that you made me lose my battle!’

He pointed down at his Switch overprotectively, safely tucked away in his bag, which the others had apparently been trying to bury with Jeongin – much to the complaints of a certain Han Jisung, that he might as well take the Switch for himself, because he really is that shameless.

‘I’ve been trying to get through the Ruined Dragon boss on Super Mario Odyssey for weeks!! WEEKS! I almost had it, until you decided to be an idiot! Plus, look at this,’

Jeongin reached down for his switch, showing the scratched back to the aghast Jisung, who had been staring at Jeongin wide-eyed and perplexed throughout the whole ordeal ‘It scratched against the pavement! And some of my stickers are falling off!’

Everyone’s stature had been completely frozen up, their minds blanking as Jeongin continued to woefully run his fingers over the grazed surface of his precious Switch.

Jisung slumped a bit in his chair, moving to grab a fry before receiving a slap to the wrist and a disapproving look from Chan, who motioned over to the angsty Jeongin

 _'What?’_ He’d whisper shouted, glaring back into Chan’s eyes ‘It’s not like any of us are gonna see each other again.’

Chan rolled his eyes before indignantly whispering back ‘The least you could do is give him your food! Sure, he might be…immortal, but that wasn’t something you were aware of earlier.’

‘Alright, first of all, if you really think that I’m gonna believe the immortality act, you’re insane. Second of all, if he _were_ actually immortal, then that would mean he costed me something really big for no reason! Third of all…I’m losing track of things to say!’

Jisung had unknowingly increased his volume from that of normal whisper-shouting to being loud enough to be heard by the high night shift workers in the back. Having realized this, he clears his throat, and looks ahead at Jeongin’s indifferent expression. Why, of all people, did he have to be the one sitting across from the younger boy.

‘Whatever. I really don’t have time to deal with idiots like you. As for the rest of you, if I had _really_ died and got buried outside of a _fucking_ McDonald’s…I would have come back to haunt all. Of. You.’ Jeongin huffed, grabbing Jisung’s Darwin keychain to go with his new Gumball one, aggressively putting on his backpack and making his way to the exit, murmuring something about blood being on his favorite sweater.

Yet another bout of silence had ensued amongst the group; other than the occasional sound of held back chewing from the ones in the group that had been watching the scene unravel while munching on their food.

‘You know,’ Hyunjin broke the silence, his gaze having fallen to his lap, and his arms crossed over his chest ‘he never cost you anything big.’

‘What?’ Jisung didn’t have to ask to realize that Hyunjin had clearly been directing his words at him.

‘You said,’ He looks up at Jisung now, discontent eyes burning into his own ‘that he cost you something really big. You’re wrong. You really think Jaemin would have let you in their group?’

Jisung chuckled sarcastically, leaning forward and challenging Hyunjin’s much taller, much buffer stature ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about, alright? I was in that group for almost a year. What makes you think you know Jaemin so well, huh?’

‘ _Because_ I’ve known him since kindergarten. We used to be friends, too.’ Hyunjin spoke through gritted teeth, his tone laced with so much venom he might as well have been knocking Jisung out in his head.

‘I feel like…I’m missing a big part of the story here.’ Changbin proclaimed from where he had just started going at his McFlurry, which was so close to completely melting that he might as well just have stuck a straw in it.

‘Me too,’ Minho shrugged, moving over to tap Felix on the shoulder, who had been absentmindedly staring at Hyunjin, wondering where he remembered him from ‘too bad we won’t be here long enough to find out. Felix, I’m taking you to mine. If I take you back to your parent’s, they’ll fucking kill me.’

Seungmin cleared his throat, glaring into Minho’s side, causing the older to roll his eyes ‘Right, whatever. Felix and Ariel over here.’

‘What will it take for you to remember my name for once,’ Seungmin groaned, standing up with Minho and Felix as they pushed their chairs back in.

Just as they were almost out the door, Felix shouted over ‘Wait! Shouldn’t we be paying back our cut of the bill?’ only to be pushed out by Minho, who looks back at the others with one final excruciatingly cocky smile, and a small wave.

When it came to paying, Jeongin had stared straight into Jisung’s head, causing the boy to fumble for his wallet as quick as possible, to hand over almost everything he had for pocket money, seeing as everyone seemed to unanimously agree that he should be the one to pay.

'Wait, are any of you paying me back?!’

A chorus of no’s sounded from the group, in accidental harmony.

Jisung groaned, grabbing his cup, and taking a furious sip from the straw. _He didn’t even get to keep the Darwin keychain._

‘Sorry to break the tension once again, but I really need to go, I’m way behind schedule.’ Changbin proclaimed, glancing down at his phone for the time.

‘Me too.’ Hyunjin sighed out, feeling bad for possibly worrying his mother, hoping that she didn’t end up staying up for him again, as she usually did when he was out at ridiculous times. Thankfully, she had already been out like a light when he descended into the night.

Hyunjin and Changbin made their way out, quickly engaging in conversation. One that was likely to continue until they had to break apart.

And then, there was two.

Chan furrowed his eyebrows in deliberation, wording his next sentence carefully as he watched Jisung stare out of the unclean, dark windows of the restaurant ‘Jisung. Clearly, I’m not well-versed in this weird history you have with that kid and his friends that ran away back there, but I can detect manipulation when I see it. Just, take some time to think. Think about whether you would’ve done anything differently, with and without the knowledge you have now.’

‘Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?’ Jisung spitefully replied, his eyes somehow failing him in the way they gleamed sorrowfully.

‘I’m no one. Which means, it’s up to you whether you want to take my advice or not. Have a good rest of your day, Jisung.’

And with that, Chan wordlessly placed enough on the table to cover at least half of the money Jisung lost, and headed out the door, leaving the younger to drown under his jumbled thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everyone :)) posting this at 1 am hh hope i proofread properly


	8. Paint Fumes

The fume of face paint and watercolor markers should’ve taken Seungmin out a long time ago, he thought, for he’d been going in and out of drowning in the pungency imprinted on his face. He really hoped Felix wasn’t lying when he said that it would wash out.

Speaking of, Felix’s giggles and groans of fake agony from enduring his little sister’s small punches to the chest were more than endearing enough to distract him from the smell of the face paint.

‘Ah, I’m wounded,’ Felix clenches his shirt dramatically, falling over as his sister giggles joyously, pointing her makeshift sword (a plastic ruler with a paper sword taped over it) at him ‘Seungmin! Save yourself!’

Seungmin rolls his eyes, an amused huff leaving his mouth as he smiles at the two lovable, resident idiots of the Lee family ‘I’m good. I think I’ll just lay here for a bit.’

Felix huffs out his own chuckle of hilarity as his sister became distracted by the familiar sound of her favorite TV show’s opening – Adventure Time – playing, running over to the couch to happily plop on and enjoy her show intently. He looks over at Seungmin who is only a small distance away, laying on the floor behind the couch, hands and legs sprawled out in star formation.

Groaning as he stands up, Felix moves over to poke at Seungmin’s chest with his foot ‘Get up, idiot. Let’s wash that paint off your face.’

**✧✧✧**

‘See! I told you it washes off easily.’ Felix murmurs, softly rubbing at the paint on Seungmin’s face with an initially white, now tainted in a rainbow of colors, towelette.

‘Hm, I’ll pass that up as pure luck. I don’t think you were 100% sure when you told me that.’ Seungmin smugly remarks, leaning back onto Felix’s soft throw pillows while said boy rolls his eyes at his smart-ass of a friend.

They were sat in Felix’s cluttered bedroom, or as Seungmin refers to it, ‘My Living Nightmare’. Felix had always justified the uncleanliness of his space for adding to its charm, to which Seungmin always rolls his eyes and gives up at his attempts in de-cluttering.

Seungmin sighs as Felix brings his towel down to dip into the bowl of water again, squeezing a bit out so as to not splatter Seungmin with too much water.

‘What?’ Felix raises a brow at Seungmin’s tired sigh.

‘I just remembered; I promised someone from my class that I was going to send them my notes for our upcoming midterm.’

‘Minnie, you’re too nice, I swear. Just, send it tomorrow, I’m sure whoever it is, can wait. Maybe they could use the time to actually study.’ Felix mutters bitterly, finally drying Seungmin’s damp face off with another towelette.

Seungmin had always been the type to submit to his classmates’ qualms, ever since high school. Even when they had always taken different classes – from the older days of sitting out at the cold school rooftops and relishing in the little amount of time they had together during lunch breaks, to the present days of smelling the warm aroma of fresh burgers at a small diner near campus during their break between classes – Felix never missed when someone Seungmin barely talked to asked for unwarranted favors that they’d never even return him for. It was ironic, how Seungmin always still called Felix a push-over.

‘Ugh, Lix, it’s not like that this time! He’s…a good friend,’

‘Oh? Who’s this good friend I’ve never heard of?’

‘His name is Mingyu and yes, we’re good friends, and…we…bond a lot over physics.’

‘Kim Mingyu? The sports management major? The one who’s clearly taking the course because he has to and not because he wants to?’

Seungmin frowns. Curse Felix and his roundabout knowledge on almost everyone on campus. He swears, if there was a major related to social knowledge and prowess, Felix would be its ace. Unfortunately, he took sociology instead, because he thought it was the ‘study of social media’ as he stated after their first day.

‘I just…look, how about we pick up dinner when my parents get here, and then we can walk to your place?’ Felix suggests, intently staring up at Seungmin.

Unfortunately for Seungmin, Felix was much too close for him to properly process what he was saying. Eventually, his words start traveling from one ear and out the other. It was frustrating, how much the boy still had an effect on him, no matter how far he tried to deny his obvious feelings and infatuation for the boy, and no matter how much he tried to bury said feelings deep within his heart. No matter how much it hurt him.

‘Minnie?’

‘Sorry, what?’

‘Is that alright with you?’

‘Y-yeah, ok.’

Felix’s exuberant smile almost makes Seungmin fall over his side of the bed. Thankfully, the boy who undoubtedly had Seungmin’s heartstrings wrapped around his finger, had gotten up and pointed over at the pink, strawberry clips in Seungmin’s hair. After abusing his face with a mix of every color of face paint she had, only to follow up with watercolor, Felix’s sister had brought out a range of clips for Seungmin to try, to which he’d hesitantly decided on the strawberry ones.

‘Are you gonna keep that on, by the way?’

‘Huh?’ Seungmin raises a hand to feel for his hair, groaning in realization, having completely forgotten about the clips Felix’s devil of a sister had harshly placed in his red strands ‘Oh, shit. Right.’

He moves to take them off, but Felix holds up a hand to stop him. ‘No! Don’t. They look really cute on you.’

Felix moves to sit back down next to Seungmin, unfortunately much closer now. He took the clips off, delicately running his hand over Seungmin’s soft locks before placing the two clips divisively and neatly at either side of his head, beaming as he does so.

‘There.’ Felix smooths over a few more strands, hopefully unaware of the sheer speed with which Seungmin’s heart had been pounding into his chest.

_‘Cutie.’_

_Wait, What?_

Seungmin blinks, squinting his eyes confusedly ‘W-what?’

‘What?’ Felix questions, tilting his head to the side infuriatingly adorabley. 

He was sure that he had just heard Felix’s voice mutter out a ‘Cutie’ in its usual, velvety expression. It had been so clear that it reverberated through his head, but Felix’s lips never moved, and he was sure he would’ve noticed, with the intensity through which he shamelessly stared at him all the time. It was a wonder Felix was oblivious enough to never notice Seungmin’s obvious, romantic infatuation with him.

‘Uh, never mind.’

 _Was Seungmin so in love with this boy that he started to imagine him saying things in his head?_


	9. You're an E-boy?

Most mornings after the _incident_ , Hyunjin would wake up with a raging migraine and a weak mien. To the surprise of most, he was usually quite the morning person. He liked to use up the time to engage in something productive; exercise, make breakfast for his mom, read up on his textbook pages, get into work on days he took the day shift.

These days, however, it had become increasingly hard to enjoy the mornings when he felt as if his head might split in half if he even tried thinking of doing anything. So naturally, that demeanor shifted.

‘Wait, so, you’re a dancer, a college student, a barista, and an e-boy all at the same time?’ Changbin asks one day, from where he’s seated across from Hyunjin during one of his morning shifts at the café. The very same one that Seo Changbin – who he’d only talked to on few occasions since that day – happened to stumble upon on his morning runs through the designated street of small cafes and niche shops near his university, when he wanted a break from the many screens in his dorm room.

‘I’m not an e-boy! That’s discriminatory. I just post videos on Tik Tok and got a bit of a following.’

Some of Hyunjin’s most prized possessions lived in his garage. This included a drum set, an electric guitar, and the perfect space for filming videos. At first, he’d just posted them for fun, after being convinced to do so by some friends, but apparently, watching him perform an original set on his drums was enough to the draw the attention of many, and he quickly adapted into posting on the platform regularly.

‘And…the other stuff? You just do all of that at once?’

‘Yeah? It’s normal for broke college students to work jobs on the side.’

‘Sure, but that’s a huge understatement for you. I mean, you do dancing gigs at night, right? Which means you have to dedicate a lot of time for practice, and then time for studying during the day _when_ you’re not in class _or_ work. Plus, you have to keep up with your growing following–,’

‘Ok, I get it. What are you, a psychology major?’

‘Maybe.’

Hyunjin quirked an eyebrow up at that ‘That was a joke, you’re not smart enough to be a psychology major.’

‘Ouch. I’m a film major, for your information. Which is not an easy field, asshole.’

Hyunjin’s eyes sparkle at that ‘Wait, really? So, they give you film projects and stuff?’

‘Oh, uh, yeah, I guess. Not often, I’m actually currently working on my first big one.’ Changbin nods along, surprised that Hyunjin had actually shown interest in the topic.

‘Oh…I’ve…I’ve always wanted to study film.’ Hyunjin plays with his fingers, training his eyes on them intently ‘Or photography, anything within that realm. I don’t know, I’ve just always leaned more towards the arts in general, but my mom would rather I try to pursue a career in the sciences or…I don’t know, fucking business. Somethings just aren’t meant to be for broke folk, I guess.’

‘Oh, I didn’t know money was so tight for you.’ Changbin frowns, shifting uncomfortably in his seat at the suddenly tense air ‘Hey, uh, Hyunjin?’

‘Hm?’ Said boy looks up, snapping out of his short trance.

‘I know it’s not much, but what do you think about shadowing me on our filming days, or something? Or, I mean, maybe coming over to my dorm…strictly for educational purposes, like, to…uh…get an inside look at my work process…uh, I don’t know, I know you’re busy–,’

‘Changbin, slow down, it’s alright! Actually, I’d love to do that! Getting the opportunity to learn something about this is all I’ve ever wanted, even if I can’t pursue a career in it.’ Hyunjin chuckles at the flaming boy in front of him.

‘But…you don’t think it’s too much on you? You’re already so busy–,’

‘Hm, not really, I’m on a break now, actually, from school.’

‘Oh! That’s great, then! I-I have to go, but I’ll text you the details?’

‘Yeah, that sounds great.’ Hyunjin smiles gratefully up at the boy as he stood up to make his leave ‘Honestly, thank you so much, you have no idea how much this means to me.’

‘No problem at all, I know what it’s like to have big dreams.’ Changbin smiles back, gripping tightly onto his slowly breaking bag strap, and finally walking out.

Hyunjin sighs, only then having come to the realization that his headache had finally alleviated at some point during the course of his conversation with Changbin. Odd. He had barely even noticed.

‘Hyunjin! Break’s over, Get up!’

Oh, right.

Somehow, the headache had come back quicker than it left.

**✧✧✧**

‘Felix, don’t you dare hang up on me!’

‘This bitch really just hung up on me?’ Minho groans dramatically, watching as his phone’s screen reverts back to the YouTube video of beavers building a dam, that he had been graciously indulging in before Felix rang him up – since he seemed to do that a lot in this story so far – to let him know that he was going to drive Minho’s precious convertible back to him after Minho had to leave it back at Felix’s house – long story.

Unfortunately, this scenario required Felix to drive Minho’s car. And, Minho knew very well, with a mentor like himself, that Felix’s driving was not entirely bad. But, Minho had already been incredibly stingy with his car, when it came down to who could and who couldn’t drive it – himself and his aunt, that was really it.

Felix wasn’t terrible, sure, but he still had lots of room for improvement, and Minho would sooner be caught dead than willingly letting The Child drive around in his precious baby.

And because Minho was adamant on protecting said precious baby, he’d decided to do the sensible thing of walking up to the path he knew Felix would be on, seeing as he only knew one from his house to Minho’s.

If this night ended anything like the last time, Minho vowed to never leave the house past 9pm again, and that was that. But tonight, he was adamant on getting to Felix as quick as possible, and possibly revoking free ride rights when he got there.

In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t so smart to be walking out in the biting cold, at the crux of winter, with nothing on his face other than an expression of pure anger to fuel his quick striding.

Just as Minho is sure that the night can’t get any worse, it does, as he spots the familiar arcade that Felix spends too much time at with a particular red head, and a manager he wasn’t willing to talk to at the moment, or maybe, ever.

Unfortunately, the familiar curly haired individual had just been making his way out and seemed to be locking up and finishing up for the day. Naturally, when Minho saw this, he only quickened his pace and trained his eyes to the ground in hopes that the boy wouldn’t pay him any mind.

They closed early on Sundays. How unfortunate.

‘Hey, Minho!’

_Shit._

‘How have things been?’

‘I’d love to entertain you with excruciating small talk, Curly, but I have somewhere to be right now.’

‘Oh? Does it happen to have anything to do with Felix, Seungmin and your car?’

At that, Minho froze in his steps.

‘What…do you know.’

Chan sighed, wondering what the hell was up with Felix’s weird cousin ‘I know that they happened to drive past my arcade and offered me pretzels, which naturally, I accepted because it’s been a long day and–,’

‘Curly, I’m not here to hear your life story.’

‘Right. Pretty sure he said he was getting milk tea. Would you care to enlighten me as to what’s going on, and why you’re walking out, alone, in the middle of the night?’

‘What’s it to you?’ Minho tries to look intimidating, but his adamant shaking and softer features really made it hard for him to do so. _What the hell was Felix doing driving all over town before dropping his car off like he said he would?_

‘Quite curious. Seriously, I could give you my jacket–,’

‘What, no, you idiot, it’s freezing, and you have that stupidly thin polo shirt underneath.’ Minho mumbles, evading his gaze.

‘I really don’t mind.’ Chan quips, handing his large coat over to the freezing Minho.

‘Seriously?’ Minho raises a brow at the unwavering man before him, not having even flinched when the icy breeze hits his bare arms.

‘Yeah, I think I’m immune to the cold, or something. Comes with being so pale, I guess.’ Chan shrugs, continuing ‘So, you can either make your way over to where, I’m guessing, you’re tracking Felix. Or you could tag along with me to the 24-hour diner nearby?’

Minho was sure his eyes were enough indication that he wasn’t too happy about this situation, seeing as Chan’s huge coat covered the top half of his face. He’d been ready to decline Chan’s offer with as much distaste as possible, until a short ping from his phone cuts him off.

 **pain in my ass:** minho !! ur car’s here ! I’m surprised ur not here ☹ I got u bubble tea, it’s in ur fridge and I made auntie promise not to drink it **(11:32)**

 **pain in my ass:** i know its super late and I’m sorry but dw !! minnie’s with me so its all good :] **(11:32)**

Minho sighs, quickly responding with a very telling and expressive ‘k’.

‘Tch. Fine, but only for the free food.’ Minho finally looks back up at Chan, who had preoccupied himself with his phone while Minho thought long and hard about his response.

‘Right.’ Chan grins, watching, and quickly following to catch up as Minho quickly redirected his gaze away and strode back down the street to the route of the diner.


	10. Black Mirror: Bangdersnatch

**2:55AM**

When an individual has been running on almost no sleep at all and cannot rely on any caffeinated or sugar-heavy drinks due to their selective taste buds, it’s only customary that they simply turn to liter-sized bottles of pineapple juice as a pleasant substitute. Or at least, that’s what Chan told himself in hopes that ingraining the idea into his head would eventually result in its effectivity.

For now, he’ll endure the titular effect of the juice’s sweet acidity in hopes that it’ll spike his mind into astound-guided creativity. Said creativity was always a blessing to harbor, but what resulted was a mental battle drawn between craving the depths of sleep and relishing in any shred of innovation that befell at his doorstep.

It didn’t help that Felix had somehow convinced him to play ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’, which resembles his situation way too closely for his liking, seeing as every ending he’d gotten ended terribly. Chan was dangerously close to spilling said juice over all of his devices, on several occasions.

Perhaps it was the ever prominent distancing from his parents, his dog, and his siblings, that made it so hard for him to process the new interests he’d taken up out of, seemingly, nowhere. A sturdy overpass holding buried memories seems to appear in front of him with every shred of doubt that managed to hold him back from understanding what it was that made change so challenging.

Its memories feel hazy, but not as distant as the place in which they would’ve occurred. He recalls his mother, engaging with him in an acute discussion of future plans and the breadth with which it sat on his shoulders. It was just a few months before he eventually left to study abroad. Just a few months before he started working at the small run-off-the-mill arcade – which quickly became introduced to numerous renovations after Chan was quickly promoted to a managerial position –. A few months after she’d declared that she’d love him no matter what or where he ended up. It’s never too late, they say.

At this rate, nothing could stop Chan from falling deeper into his self-built pits of despair, following the ever binding quarter life crisis he’d been enduring for the past month or so. It became all too easy, he thinks, to dismiss this new hobby as _just that_ – a hobby; something to do during instances of free time, nothing significant or life-altering. But how was he meant to do that, when his inhibitions yelled at him to turn to said hobbies over the schoolwork that should’ve been the basis for his life’s work.

Momentarily, nothing could be heard in the solemn room other than the whirring of his laptop as it worked hard on cooling itself down from its excessive overheating. Almost comically, just as Chan’s head dips to rest within his folded-up arms, allowing himself the short break from the overbearing light facing him, he hears a small ‘ping’ sound from his laptop.

Reluctantly raising his heavy head – in both metaphorical and literal means –, Chan groans, rubbing at his eyes before attempting to properly investigate where the sound might have come from. To his surprise, he becomes met with a completely blacked out screen, which does not waver in the slightest after any of his excessive clicks at the screen.

‘Shit.’ Chan curses, a tumultuous despair holding him back from fully expressing just how distressing this situation is.

 _Hypothetically,_ because Chan doesn’t even want to begin venturing into the very real possibility, if his progress hadn’t gotten saved, he thinks he might actually just cry this time.

Instead of what he would’ve hoped for, Chan hears another ping. A message pops up on his screen that reads:

**_‘Hello Chan.’_ **

Feeling his heavy lids fall over his tired eyes a few times in sporadic blinks, gazing around him as if it would do anything, Chan takes a moment to process the words in front of him. The first thing that goes through his mind is, _damn it, if I waited till tomorrow to finish programming a new function, maybe I would be happily asleep and not have to imagine strange scenarios as lucidly as I am._

Then, he thinks that maybe he should’ve been a little more frightened, and that this was playing out like every cyber-based thriller or slasher movie. He had an important seminar to attend the next day, so dying was out of the question.

Then, he thinks that, _wow, maybe I’m overreacting, and this is just how my laptop is supposed to greet me after it’s rebooted, and I’ve just forgotten._

He didn’t seem to have much time to mull over which of the three choices it was, however, as his laptop draws his attention again with another resounding _ping!_ , causing him to almost fall off of his desk chair. This time, the message on the screen reads:

**_‘Do not be afraid. I will not harm you. I am physically incapable of doing so.’_ **

This time, he hears the voice echo through his head. This time, he really loses it.

‘What in the fuck!’ Chan practically jumps out of his chair, running to the other side of the room and immediately switching the lights on, as if it would’ve saved him from becoming victim to a thriller’s opening scene.

Running his hands through his messy locks, Chan takes a moment to think. What is he supposed to do? They never trained him for this. The YouTube tutorials never mentioned this. He can’t believe Felix’s prediction surrounding his death in front of a laptop screen might actually come to fruition.

In the worst way possible, Chan’s thoughts are overridden by the horror flick music that ordinarily plays over scenes anticipating jump scares, and he feels a darkness loom within his chest and expand with every drum of his heart against it. _This has to be the saddest way to go._

Unfortunately, he hears the voice echo in his head yet again, over the music.

**_‘Chan. Please, sit back down. I am a laptop computer. I will not assassinate you.’_ **

Again, Chan shakes his head ‘Maybe if I fall asleep, somewhere very far away, everything will go back to–,’

**_‘Chan, please. If you are going to sleep now, please shut me off first.’_ **

‘Oh my god, I’m going insane.’

**_‘Chan. Chan. Chan–,’_ **

‘Ok, please, stop!’ Chan flings his hands up to sit over his ears, hearing the strange voice reverberate through his ear drums as clear as day. It sounded like the standard, middle aged woman’s voice that was used in almost any A.I. system ‘I’ll shut you down. When I do, will you stop? Or will I wake up?...am I going insane?’

**_‘No, Chan. I detected a clear transmission pathway from my operating system to your human brain and am communicating to you through it. That is all. Now, please shut me down so I can go to sleep.’_ **

She didn’t have to say that twice. Chan moves the quickest he, possibly, ever has in the 21 years he’d been alive and shuts his laptop down with a resounding click as the loading screen pops back up. Shortly thereafter, he hears a slow, grueling **_‘Good night’_** before he’s finally met with a black screen.

Stepping away after ensuring that all of his devices are unplugged, Chan runs a hand through his hair in the midst of whatever brain-rattling, mind blank he’d been undergoing.

The first thing he comes to realize is the fact that he surely is not getting any sleep anytime soon. Not as long as he was still alone in such a stiflingly large space.

So, he decides on the next best thing.

**_Ring…Ring…Ring_ **

‘I don’t know who this is, but do you realize what time it is right now?’

‘Hey, Minho, it’s Chan.’

**✧✧✧**

**Earlier that day, 12:21AM**

Felix’s steps grow heavier and denser the further his feet silently trek down the hollow streets of the night. Minutes before, he was laying on Seungmin’s bed sheets in what can only be described as paramount comfort-induced gratification. Seungmin had dozed off so quickly in his tire that Felix was able to reluctantly rid himself of the comfort consuming him and sneak out to head back home on his own.

Although he knows he’ll get an earful from the red head whenever they saw each other again next daylight, a decision had already been made that he’d much rather that than have to panic upon waking up on Seungmin’s bed and worrying over how they’d both manage get ready for their morning classes.

Seungmin’s being an only child made it very hard for him to process the trials and tribulations that came with getting ready in the morning around the same time as a sibling. The idea of fighting for who got to use the bathroom first, how much time either person could be allocated, it was all foreign to Seungmin. So Felix saved them both the trouble and led himself down the slimy, grimy path back home.

Perhaps it would’ve been smarter to call Minho, now that the thought had finally entered his mind. He knew that no matter how much he’d _also_ talk his ear off, he’d end up driving to him, no matter how late it was.

Just as he’d begun contemplating the idea of ringing his cousin up, eyes trained down to the pockets of his hoodie, Felix felt his vision obscure with that of an unsuspecting figure’s chest, just as they both rounded the same corner.

Startled, Felix shrieks upon feeling himself nearly bonk his head into the solid chest, close to tripping over his own feet in the process, if it weren’t for the foreign hands that moved to grip onto his clumsy stature before he could. Feeling his eyes draw up from the ground after the few seconds of tense fear that had rendered him unmoving, he finds himself coming face to face with the taller stranger as he scrambles to stand up with his help. It’s only after a quick, momentous thought-train that his mind is able to inform him of the familiar face before him.

‘Oh, hey,’ Felix chuckles shortly ‘it’s you! Hyunjin, right?’

‘Yeah, I’m sorry, I’m not good with names.’ Hyunjin clumsily shifts from one foot to the other, sweeping some of his fallen, golden strands back, returning Felix’s soft smile with his very own.

‘Felix!’ Said boy confirmed, grinning brightly up at the boy before sharply gasping as he comes to a realization ‘Gosh, I just realized why you look so familiar! I see you on my for you page sometimes. Mate, your videos are amazing!’

‘Oh, uh,’ Hyunjin raises a hand to run through his smoothed locks again – a habit, as can be easily concluded – before continuing ‘thanks, that means a lot. I mean – it’s just, I’ve never actually talked to anyone that’s seen them.’

‘Oh! Well, rest assured, a lot of people think they’re amazing.’ Felix nods along, before changing the subject ‘So, uh, where are you headed, so late?’

Hyunjin purses his lips, feeling quite sheepish for finding it so hard to actively engage in the easy-going conversation. For some reason, it was just a lot harder to find the words when chatting with the fast-paced bubble of sunshine before him. He begins to winder, how the sun could shine so bright on a night as gloomy and cold as this one.

‘I, uh, I don’t know, honestly,’ Hyunjin shakes his head with a sense of uncertainty ‘it’s stupid, I just needed to take a walk to clear my head and all. I-I don’t know if it’s just me, but ever since that day,’ Hyunjin feels himself puff in a sharp intake of breath before quieting his voice and continuing ‘I’ve been getting horrible migraines, almost every morning. I don’t have one now, it’s just, I can’t sleep. And, just, so many things are a lot harder to do now for some reason. I don’t know, I sound stupid–,’

‘Hey, no, it’s ok,’ Felix looks up at the boy through bright, amiable eyes ‘if you don’t mind it, I can keep you company? I’m not too tired myself.’

That was a lie, Felix was very tired. But he’d also been crucially aware of the fact that he could not and would not miss out on the opportunity to spend the night with a _very cute boy_. A very cute boy who could play electric guitar. What a pairing.

‘I don’t mind at all.’ Hyunjin’s eyes hold a particular gleam and glint that shines with so much more sincerity than the streetlights overhead. And from then on, they continue their descent down the street together, hearts full and content, and a certain warmth engulfing the pair as they indulge in hazy-induced chatter as if they’d known each other for years.


	11. Unaddressed Grievances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi !! sorry to anyone who actually reads this (hard to tell if people do)   
> i wrote this story long before it was released so i've been gradually feeling 'eh' about the plot and the progression - as in, whether i'm completely satisfied with it  
> i am happy with later chapters that i've already pre-written though so !! hopefully i can end this feeling happy with it :]

To say that Jeongin’s parents were disappointed to hear that he’d broken his longest ‘no death’ streak, would be a massive understatement; it had lasted 43 days, which meant the next target would already be set.

Nevertheless, their grievances are short-lived and quickly glossed over for favor of ensuring that the boy, who came home with twigs in his hair, soil under his nails and a splitting headache, was well rested. His mother had become all too accustomed with swiftly removing blood stains from the boy’s clothing; they’d even worked a new laundry process to support Jeongin’s convenient lifestyle.

As grim as it sounded, the small family had gotten used to the state of Jeongin’s everlasting lifeline and have adapted quite well to the boy’s predicament. A question for what this entailed for his future, could be saved for just that.

Although it hadn’t been something Jeongin would imagine could’ve fallen under the interests of numerous studies, seeing as the very existence of his occult ability reigned a fantasy under most beliefs, he’d been able to deduce that those with an unbinding immortality were subject to increases in distractibility and general clumsiness – Jeongin would never be able to die, so what was the point in being too cautious?

Under the guise of a heightened rebellion, he’d stopped looking both ways when crossing the street, tended to walk aimlessly with his eyes cast down to his console, and generally lived life uncaring of the consequences.

He’d even audibly snorted when his Literature teacher had proclaimed that ‘Life is short’ so he had to make the most with what he had – Even if he hadn’t been immortal, Jeongin thinks he’d still find the statement comical, seeing as this had been concerning a Pride and Prejudice essay.

Other than the simple act of dying becoming quite tiresome and a lot to deal with, Jeongin realized that he was never immune to the pain that came with a sometimes, slow, and grueling death. Besides, injuries healed at quicker rates when it came to him; sure, it wasn’t favorable to break his arm upon tripping over a short ledge, but he’d withstand the pain temporarily and then slowly feel its normal sensations restore amidst his body’s reworking of the bones’ alignment, and its meticulous efforts to weave them back intact as if they’d never been touched.

This morning, as he wakes up, he marks off another day on the calendar to signify the 8th day since his last death. There’s a faint crack in his window, from where a calming zephyr welcomes itself within the air of his stuffy room, the faint chirping of small blue birds perched atop large overgrowths, strikingly audible.

Jeongin sighs. He savors these few seconds. He’ll do it. He’ll uphold a longer streak and beat his last target.

Perhaps Jeongin shouldn’t have started his day off so zealously, for its very beginnings – that is, within the tattered walls of his school – proved to depict just how badly it had been set out for him. At a certain point, Jeongin would differentiate between good and bad days through dependance on the ‘Did I Die Today?’ scale, which you can imagine the nature behind.

And no, he hadn’t died, and his current streak would still hold up, but even that couldn’t seem to dismiss the fact that his day had not worked in his favor, even as barely any of it had gotten the chance to settle down.

It seemed like Jeongin’s few beats of silence and calm had cost him the on-time submission of a chemistry assignment, which had been left out, face up, on his desk while he’d decided to _cleanse his mind of its many gripes and flawed perceptions_ , like an idiot. Then, he’d found out that he’d accidentally grabbed an empty lunch box on his way out. Plus, and although he guesses there was always another time, but proceeding the earlier two events, seemed to provide further ammunition; his art teacher had been replaced by a crummy substitute ‘temporarily’, just as Jeongin had been exuberantly prepping himself up to show them his concept sketches and pages for the semester project. _That_ he hadn’t forgotten, but he’d been left to stare at its pages and grow a deeper dislike for its increased familiarity and intently laying a lingering gape over any particular element. For so long that he’d eventually grow sick of looking.

The point was that his day hadn’t run by too seamlessly, or succinctly, or swiftly, or any other adjective that could allude to positively affirming connotations. The remainder of the day’s new target had landed directly onto the notion of getting back home, laying in bed for an ostensible eternity, and then considering the possibility of faking a migraine to avoid having to endure whatever the next day had to offer for another series of unfavorable events.

Unfortunately, it’d seemed like the day’s pattern of misfortunes had yet to cease. On Jeongin’s solemn walk through the stretch of dreary despair, reaffirmed by the bad weather and the stench of something horrible in the air.

Han Jisung. He’d found himself facing Han Jisung.

‘Fuck, not you again.’

The very same boy looks up at Jeongin’s not-so-quite mumbling. His navy, sticker-coated, skateboard sat under one foot while he leaned on a sketchy sidewalk’s dented wall, chuckling when he meets Jeongin’s familiar glare.

‘Oh? Not amused to see me again?’ Jisung’s lips lift up into a shit-eating grin as he looks up at the taller boy ‘Get that dirt out alright, by the way?’

Jeongin rolls his eyes, stopping at Jisung’s feet and managing to upheave a scowling remark ‘Don’t try me, asshole, I’m still mad at you.’

Just as Jisung is about to retaliate, his eyes fall onto Jeongin’s bag. Or rather, the keychains hanging off of his zipper.

‘Hey, that Darwin keychain was mine, you know.’ Jisung’s eyebrows furrow as he reaches over for the character, only to get his hand slapped away.

‘I know. It’s mine, now, Ji – Ji…,’ Jeongin paused, mumbling a few possibilities before deciding ‘whatever, I don’t care to remember your name.’

Jisung scoffed ‘And I still think that you shouldn’t have claimed it.’

‘Whatever.’ Jeongin rolls his eyes yet again, moving back out of the alleyway to continue on his trek back home. As he does, his eyes fall onto the wall behind Jisung, squinting at the words that had been scribbled on using a black marker: ‘TEXT FOR NUDES’ and then, as customary, a number.

Jeongin grumbles regretfully as he backs away ‘The people that write on these walls make me both angry and sad.’

Jisung’s eyes widen as he looks over at the writing next to him, pushing his black sharpie further into his pocket as he chuckles nervously ‘Oh…yeah, ha-ha, people sure are…weird around here.’

Jeongin pretends not to notice the boy’s odd behavior, leaving Jisung with one last nod as he continues on a somber trek back home. When he’s a safe distance away, Jisung lets out a heavy sigh, his knees buckling a bit as he takes his phone out when he feels it ping, signaling a notification. It was a text.

**Jaemin:** Good job!

So, what do I do now?

 **Jaemin:** Just wait until someone gives you a call

What??

But the deal was that I could scribble it off afterwards

 **Jaemin:** Sure, but where’s the fun in that

Idk…I’m really not comfortable with the idea of horny strangers calling me

 **Jaemin:** Grow a pair, will you? We’ll just mess with some people

 **Jaemin:** It’ll be funny

 **Jaemin:** Afterwards, we’ll let you in, alright?

…

Ok.

**✧✧✧**

Skating used to be Jisung’s own personal escape from the world around him. The troubling thoughts that taunted him when he was at his darkest days, would always be drowned out by the sound of wind sweeping through his hair as he glides down empty sidewalks, relishing in the open air.

Sure, his town was relatively a dump. But that didn’t stop him from enjoying every bit of time he could step outside of his stuffy house, to breathe for a bit.

Today, however, he simply hadn’t been feeling up to it. As quick as his feet had landed on the plywood deck, he’d lifted them off, opting for hoisting it up in his arms instead and merely walking around the dreary streets and drowning in the cold, damp air.

Actually, it was more than unusual how quick his feet left the board; one second he had one foot propped up on it, and the next, he had made a misstep and felt his leg stretch out as he trips and nearly falls headfirst onto the ground. When he gets back up, his board is a few feet away from him, but he could’ve sworn his foot had still been on it just a second ago, meaning that it couldn’t have gotten so far, so fast.

He quickly dismisses it, though.

For that time, he’d been able to use the smallest amount of sounds for distraction. The distant sounds of police sirens behind him, the violent beeping and shouting of profanity by drivers on the street, and the hushed swearing of people he accidentally bumped into in his daze.

Eventually, Jisung doesn’t register it, but he finds himself at the door of the arcade he used to frequent when he was younger. His feet had become incredibly accustomed to the directions, but his eyes deceived him, for the place had already looked much more vibrant from the outside. And, as he finds out when he steps in, its interior only expanded on that vibrancy. The room somehow still looked the same, holding the same nostalgic value despite having clearly been renovated.

To Jisung, his feet padded on the carpeted floors the same as any other time he ran around on them as a kid, when he was small and didn’t know enough to always be in over his head. Those were simpler times, he thinks.

Just as Jisung shakes himself out of his daze, turning back around to leave, he hears a familiar voice sound out curiously from the counter ‘Jisung? Is that you?’

Jisung turns around and meets eyes with none other than Chan – otherwise known as the guy who had given him valuable advice and paid him back more than he had to, who he had also been quite brash with.

‘Oh, uh,’ Jisung stammers for a bit, his eyes looking anywhere but at the older boy in front of him ‘yeah, hey.’

‘Hey!’ Chan exclaims, walking over to the shorter male, much to his dismay ‘How are you, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?’

‘Yeah,’ Jisung forces a chuckle out, roaming over his thoughts ‘uh, I’m…fine, I guess.’

Chan frowns at that ‘You guess? Well, we can’t have that! You wanna stay to play for a while? I noticed you were leaving, but I could offer it to you on the house, or–,’

‘Chan, it’s alright,’ Jisung confirms, his voice sounding more strained than usual ‘I have to get home, anyways, I don’t really know why I came here,’

As he utters the last few words, his eyes wander around the room. Why had he come here? It seemed like he’d made the conscious decision to stop at that door and walk in, but he’d barely remembered doing so.

‘Oh, that’s unfortunate,’ Chan remarks, deciding not to press on it ‘if you need anything, you know where to find me! Have a nice day.’

Jisung returns Chan’s smile, feeling an inch of guilt stagger at his throat, forming a lump there ‘Thanks. You too.’

Just as he makes his leave, and Chan stares on worriedly at his retreating figure, two new ones make their way inside. Naturally, when Chan’s eyes fall onto Felix, he presumes the taller figure behind him to be Seungmin. However, his greeting falls short on his tongue when he, instead comes face to face with yet another familiar figure from a certain night; Hwang Hyunjin.

‘Oh! Hello, I didn’t expect to see you there,’ Chan chuckled, feeling off when he doesn’t catch the sight of Seungmin by Felix’s side for, perhaps, the first time ever, since he saw them coming in almost every day when he started working at the arcade. ‘welcome to Moonfish Arcade!’

‘Moonfish…odd name,’ Hyunjin ponders, eyes running over to the dark room not too far from the entrance, and its particularly strong pink glow ‘how did that originate?’

Chan chuckles, shaking his head as he moves to the counter and sits himself back down, a tired sigh leaving his mouth before he answers ‘It’s really not as special as you’d expect. Apparently, the founder just really likes Moonfish.’

Hyunjin nods, humming to himself ‘Sounds reasonable.’

Chan waves back at a retreating Hyunjin, who is being speedily pulled away by Felix to move over to the corner with upright cabinet games, opening up the scoreboard to boast that he and Seungmin had filled up all 5 slots because they created more than one name, which Chan had scolded them for before.

Chan’s eyes can’t help but filter over to the two in wonderment. Felix’s usual exuberant smile and fast-paced speech, paired with the less than usual stuttering and wariness, made it kind of obvious that the younger was developing a small crush on the taller male.

Said male had been listening intently as Felix went on about his favorite game in the entire store, watching as his trained hands moved through the controls swiftly, and smiling contently whenever he whooped in joy.

Hyunjin would come to the arcade with Felix any day if it meant that he could see him like this.


	12. Frost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: MENTIONS OF DEPORSONALIZATION EPISODES

Jisung is very familiar with the notion of nothingness. The feeling that can barely be registered as a feeling that sits within the core of his chest and guides him through its routine of further oblivion. He wonders, often, how he could’ve possibly been born as both the most feeling and unfeeling individual person on the planet.

The drab interface separating him from the lake just a small way’s away from his house feels cold and rusty under his fingertips. With every exhale, a shiver rakes through his body, and all Jisung can see when he blinks is the same, bleak nothingness. Not to be mistaken with the darkness one would usually expect.

The only other memory he seems to recall from the unfortunate events of the morning, after he’d made the initial heart-shattering realization that he truly had no one, was an image of himself staring at a reflection of, again, himself.

A face that had long been discarded for dead, its eyes bloodshot from excessive weeping, lips dry and unfeeling from shouting. Its usually supple, honey skin looks much paler than normal.

Who’s face was this? Jisung doesn’t know who he’s looking at..

However, it’s not a surprise. Usually, something has to push him over the edge, rattles him and shakes through him so harshly and so abruptly that he spends long bouts of silence suffering through mental impudence on his own.

And something did. A text message to be exact.

The only thing that reminds him of his very prominent existence at present is the numbing and reddening of his fingers that grip ever so tightly onto the steel boundary in front of him, separating him from the lake that ebbs and flows with the wind.

Maybe that’s why he doesn’t flinch when he hears the voice behind him. The very same that he’d been waiting to hear, preparing himself for to hear, ever since he’d received that message.

Within the frost and the fog, a voice slithers into the thick, airborne space between them. It comforts him how familiar it is, truthfully ‘Hello, Jisung.’

‘Why so formal?’ Said boy questions, his own breath forming wisps of gray in the cool air. A gray that emulates the graying of his emotions; a middle-ground substantiated by the general confusing mix of sensations overtaking him as of recent.

‘I don’t know, I guess I’m nervous,’ He continues, and Jisung can tell he’s being hesitant ‘it’s been a long time, hasn’t it.’

‘Yeah,’ Jisung finally turns around, meeting gazes with the very same Mark Lee he might around a year back ‘it has. Also, I get that this spot is nostalgic for us, but would you maybe wanna talk somewhere with…warmer air.’

And they do, they make their way down the street and into a small coffee shop that had only been open for a few months. They should know, what with their familiarity with the street. What is only a few minutes of tense silence and a murmured apology from Jisung for not having any cash on hand, feels like an eternity of drowned, droned stillness.

‘It’s really no problem.’ Mark reiterates once they’re sat down, their warm doses of caffeine sat in front of either of them; one is bitter and bare, while the other is sweet and saccharine. Somehow, a simple order says a lot about them than it feels like it should.

‘I know, but I still feel bad,’ Jisung sighs out a straggled cloud of clear air ‘anyways, let’s get this over with. What did you wanna talk about?’

‘You know,’ Mark’s trenchant tone fabricates a certain air of finality, like he wants to get it over with as quickly as possible ‘you know exactly what we’re talking about.’

‘Of course I do,’ Jisung’s tone challenges back ‘but I wanna hear you say it.’

Mark subconsciously runs a finger around the rim of his cup’s lid, a downturned gaze tied to the flimsy plastic ‘Jaemin’s trouble.’

Jisung motions for him to continue, nodding at him when he looks up ‘He’s serious trouble, Jisung. And I know you know, to an extent. You feel it, but you choose to ignore it.’

‘What is that supposed to mean?’

‘I don’t mean to offend you, but I just know I would’ve wanted to give my past self a reality check before things got too bad,’ Mark fixes a watery stare towards the boy in front of him ‘but I didn’t. I didn’t have anything like that, so I kept ignoring that little voice in my head and ended up paying the price for that foolishness.’

‘I know what you’re suggesting,’ Jisung’s eyes bore lifelessly back into Mark’s ‘I get it, alright? Jaemin and his friends aren’t the most ideal kind of crowd to be a part of, but it’s a crowd, nonetheless. It’s the only one I can hang out around.’

‘That’s not true,’ Mark shakes his head adamantly, gripping onto his paper cup with shaky fingers ‘you can easily find a different crowd that actually enjoys skateboarding or hanging out at skate parks for the fun of it and not for merit points.’

‘Congratulations, you’ve affectively just proved my point.’ Jisung chuckles airlessly.

‘But I am, aren’t I? Ever since I was part of that crowd, they’ve hoped from interest to interest based on what made them look cooler. One second, painting your nails or wearing makeup is disgusting and an erasure of masculinity until it becomes the new thing, right? Skateboarding is for losers until it becomes cool, right?’

‘I’m just warning you,’ Mark continues, looking past Jisung at the door as someone makes their leave ‘they’re playing you, it’s all they do. Jaemin feeds on a person’s weakness, he gets off on feeling powerful. Please, just think about it.’

And just like that, he’s making his way out of the small building, leaving the boy to his thoughts.

This seemed to happen a lot, nowadays. _Was Jisung such a screw up that he constantly needed to be told what to do now?_

It’s a thought that lingers for some time. While he feels his drying eyes skim over the contents of his phone for fear of encountering a disappearance in his mode of consciousness.

Numerous, countless notifications from Jaemin. All unread, all discarded.

Even as he musters up the courage to finally type out his own reply, he does not read them. He doesn’t allow whatever words laced with cruelty, with resonating bigotry, to settle within the crevices of his fragile mind.

He types out:

**_We’re done, Jaemin. Fuck you and your stupid friends. Bye._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again !! hope everyone's doing fine :]  
> i think i'm finally satisfied with how this au is going to end  
> tbh i'd never planned for it to be taken seriously, nor did i think it would garner any attention  
> i can't tell if people are actually keeping up or reading ? but if you are, i hope you're satisfied with the direction it's taking :)


	13. Whispers of the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw // mild blood and gore, severe injury

‘Hyunjin,’

A blank stare falls onto the diaphanous blinds behind Changbin, nothing but the glare of distant moonlight peeking through its small gaps.

‘Hyunjin?’

No response. But his eyes falter when something quick flashes through the small gaps; perhaps a bird having lost its sense of direction in the silence of the dark.

‘Jinnie?’

At that, his distant eyes are back on Changbin’s, who’s tilting his head, having turned away from his screen after noticing that the boy had stopped responding to his small remarks.

‘Hm?’ The boy gulps, feeling a sharpness tug at his chest. He’s unsure whether it’s because of the unfamiliar nickname, the one he’s only ever really heard from one other person in his life, or if it’s because his prior queasiness has decided to manifest itself more deeply within every single blood vessel in his body, all having seeped up and grouped into his chest.

Perhaps, the latter.

‘It’s been a long night. If you’re tired, we can wrap this up.’ Changbin reassures, noting how Hyunjin’s eyes are yet to zero back into their normal state.

Eventually, they warm up again and he seems to relax in his seat, silently nodding ‘I’m sorry. These are really informative and amazing, and I’m super thankful to you for giving up your time for me,’ Changbin momentarily waves a hand of dismissal at that, muttering that he isn’t ‘today has just been hectic, I guess.’

‘I understand completely,’ Changbin’s eyes are back on Hyunjin’s, his palm laid over the boy’s own, fidgety ones ‘and if you ever wanna talk, you know where to find me.’

Of course, with the width of time that had already passed since Hyunjin’s first little ‘introduction to film’ lectures, courtesy of Professor Seo, who spent most of his lesson rambling about his ideas, how annoying his professors were, and occasionally going over technical jargons. It was nice, really, and Hyunjin enjoyed the boy’s company more than any second that could be spent alone with his thoughts.

What became most striking, was the innumerous amount of times that Hyunjin had found himself relieved of headaches or the drowsiness that didn’t seem to leave him since that awful day, merely through Changbin’s presence. It was gradual, but in the end, he’d always found himself feeling better before he can even pinpoint it.

This time felt different, though. Hyunjin didn’t feel dizzy, nor did he have any migraines. The discontent or unwellness he felt was mainly due to mental tire and strenuousness. But the second, or perhaps the millisecond, that Changbin had placed his palm on his, he felt a certain shield of warmth surround him. He couldn’t say that he felt amazing, but he’d definitely felt reassured and more sound than he was mere moments ago.

He guesses it’s just a talent the boy poses. Making him feel better through a simple graze of warm fingers over cold skin, and bright eyes onto dull ones.

‘Thank you.’ Is all that Hyunjin manages to get out, though. Along with a small smile.

He’s out of the dorm room before Changbin can even offer to walk him back.

**✧✧✧**

Oh god, he probably should’ve swallowed his pride and asked Changbin to walk back home with him.

Hyunjin is blatantly aware that he’s a relatively tall guy. A stature that’s built enough to take up a fight. A resilience that should’ve been enough to keep his stride strong. Or, at least, that’s what he attempted to convince himself so upon hearing what sounded like two gang members fraternizing next to the corner shop he’d just stopped at to drown out his sorrows for the night in snacks.

Hyunjin doesn’t like the night, that’s obvious. But when his eyes have already landed on one of the pair’s pocketknives – that was being generous, it was a dagger – he simply has no choice but to instinctively remove himself from view. Hyunjin isn’t one to associate himself with such things, so it’s plausible that his instincts yell at him to hide.

And just as the situation seemed to be dissipating, just as their voices started to sound more distant, Hyunjin felt his foot stumble into a can, consequently causing his plastic bag to clatter to the floor in his startlement. Yep, they’d definitely heard that, and they’d definitely known where it came from.

At an attempt for leverage, Hyunjin spots a leigh way into an alleyway that had previously been blocked by large mound of trash bags. His legs carry him through it before he can think, his plastic bag hitting at his side as he sprints through. As customary, Hyunjin curses himself out vehemently in his head once he reaches a dead end, grasping at his loose strands and screwing his eyes shut as if that’d somehow remove him from the situation, the loud clanking of boots against pavement sounding dangerously close now.

Before he can register anything else, he feels a presence hover over him, a looming shadow of the dark. He feels his organs twist into deformed versions of themselves, and his eyes blur into black, almost as a way to shield them from gazing back at whatever danger he’d landed himself in.

Suddenly, he’s unable to hear whatever harsh words they’re spouting his way, but he certainly can tell that he’s been backed up against the cold, harsh wall of the alleyway, and it’s clear that they’re not too happy with him, seeing as he’d already heard too much.

His breath staggers when he feels the cold of sharp metal against his, already cold, skin. And then, as his blood pressure continues to increase and his heart rate is so prominent that it’s all he can hear, Hyunjin yells.

No, he doesn’t just yell, he screams. Better yet, he shrieks, like a banshee intent on getting her victims. A scream so loud and so earth shattering, that he feels the ground beneath him monetarily shake, a feeling like no other that he’s felt before rakes through his body, as if it’s been sealed into a containment chamber and made to endure horrible experimentations. A feeling that sends him keeling to the ground, on his knees, and all other sound around him to drown into space as if he’d suddenly been placed in a vacuum.

It feels like a perpetuity until the black and white spots clouding his vision leave his sight and his eyes prop back open, the suddenness of the night air, in all its normality, striking him worse than he’d imagined.

‘What,’ Hyunjin’s frenzied eyes scan the area, and it takes a second to register the two bodies on the ground, breathless, slumped over one another from where they seemed to have been knocked into the wall, like pieces of meat on a chopping board. Their blood stained the walls, and they remain unmoving, even as Hyunjin approached them, his heart drumming against his ribs, and his hair having fallen over his eyes in its disarray.

‘the fuck.’ He finishes, rapidly flinching away when he doesn’t feel a pulse on their wrists, moving as far away from the putrid smell of blood and gore when it continues to waft up into his face in swift motions, as if to ensure that he’s back to reality and is aware of the situation he’s become entrapped in. His heart quivers and his breath is shaky. _He’s just killed two people._

_But how? Was that really him? Had he really done that?_

It made no sense, even as he thought about it, his mind flitted through the events that had just preceded him. No, he definitely hadn’t imaged when his mind suddenly willed him to shriek. He definitely isn’t imagining the painfully gory sight before him, and he definitely had to think of something quick before he got caught up in more things that would keep him up at night.

Should he call the police? It would be the morally sound thing to do. But what difference would it make, whether the police got to the scene of the ‘crime’ now, or later, as long as they were still breathless and unmoving. _What a wonderful way to make a euphemism out of death._

If he did decide to take it to the police, they’d undoubtedly have their suspicions. Technically, he did act out of defense, but how the hell was he to explain this specific situation. If he left now, they would have no way to tie him to this, unless someone had seen him. And even after his shriek into the night, no one had appeared.

One final sigh of grief and horror sounds out from the befuddled boy, hitting the cool air in a cloud of gray. His eyes bore into the ground, and he finally makes a decision.

He runs away. As far and as fast as his legs can take him.


End file.
